


Never Could Be Sweeter Than With You

by Annakovsky



Series: Home [2]
Category: The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Domestic, F/F, F/M, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, Kid Fic, Multi, POV Bruce Banner, Polyamory, Threesome, Threesome - F/M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-05-01
Updated: 2015-04-30
Packaged: 2018-03-26 10:48:38
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 9
Words: 36,930
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3848128
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Annakovsky/pseuds/Annakovsky
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Bruce is having a casual thing with Tony and Pepper; Tony has a 12-year-old daughter. Things get less casual.</p>
<p>(Written before Avengers 2. Sequel to <a href="http://archiveofourown.org/works/2340890">Through the Jungle, Through the Dark</a>, wherein Tony got the surprise tween daughter.)</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> This one got a little out of hand lengthwise. Thanks to tearupthesky for superhuman encouragement and betaing!
> 
> Contains references to Bruce's canonical childhood abuse.

"The Stark benefit is tomorrow night," Pepper says at breakfast. "Do you want to go, Sasha? I could take you shopping for a dress after school."

"Ew," Sasha says. "No." She's lived with Tony and Pepper for six weeks and is still working out her feelings about how much she hates it and them. Bruce is the only one she ever manages to be polite to, though it's not surprising that a fancy benefit isn't exactly something she'd be interested in at the best of times. This morning she's wearing a shapeless black t-shirt with a giant toothy shark on it, and it doesn't look like she's brushed her hair. Sometimes Bruce feels very fond of the little weirdo.

"All right," Pepper says, but not like that reaction was unexpected. She turns to Bruce instead. "Bruce, do you have a tux?"

"What?" Bruce says, looking up from his tablet. "Oh. Um, no, but I'm not going, am I?" He's surprised they'd even ask, like taking the other guy to an event full of the richest people on earth is a wise decision. To be tactful, though, he says, "Someone should stay with Sasha, anyway."

But apparently that wasn't as tactful as he thought because Sasha says, "What?!" looking horrified. "I'm twelve, I don't need a babysitter!"

"Of course you don't, he's being ridiculous," Tony says, looking surprised at Bruce himself. "Anyway, that's what JARVIS is for."

"JARVIS is my babysitter?!?!" Sasha says, looking even more horrified.

Pepper rolls her eyes. "No, JARVIS is Tony's babysitter," she says. "Bruce, you don't want to go?"

"Hey!" Tony says at the first sentence, but Pepper ignores him, looking at Bruce like she's a little surprised and disappointed.

This is all very confusing. "Um," Bruce says. He doesn't really want to go, but he assumed he wasn't even invited, so this conversation is throwing him a little bit. "No, I mean -- I wouldn't want to cramp your style or anything. You two should get to have a date night."

Tony and Pepper exchange a glance at that, one that Bruce can't quite read. But honestly, they should get a night alone, just the two of them. They haven't had that since Tony's illegitimate daughter showed up, and really, barely since they started occasionally sleeping with Bruce a couple of months ago. He's sure they must miss it.

"Okay," Pepper finally says slowly. "If you don't want to go, you don't have to." 

Bruce thinks she's probably grateful that he gave her a polite out -- they don't need Bruce tagging along, getting in the way. The Hulk means Bruce can't have a real relationship anyway, but that's the nice part about having a casual thing with a serious couple. It keeps it comfortable, safe, everyone knowing exactly where they stand. Tony and Pepper are the couple, a couple with a kid now, and Bruce will lift right out whenever it's time for him to move on.

Besides, some benefit where he has to wear a tux and make small talk sounds nightmarish -- he's with Sasha on that one.

**

Bruce is down in the workshop working on some gamma ray simulations on Tony's computer when Tony and Pepper get back from the benefit, looking extremely attractive in their fancy clothes, Pepper in a low-cut green dress that is a little distracting. They're flushed, and Bruce wonders if they were making out in the towncar that drove them back. He hopes so -- they really deserved a romantic evening.

"Bruce!" Tony says, heading straight over to him, Pepper just a step or two behind, giggling a little at Tony's tone. Okay, yeah, so they're also drunk.

"Back already?" Bruce says, smiling in spite of himself.

"Uh, it's 3 am," Tony says.

"Is it?" Bruce says. Whoops -- he hadn't noticed it getting that late.

Pepper grins at him, reaching out to stroke her hand down the side of his face before she kisses him.

"Yeah, you lose track of time?" Tony says. "You should've been at the benefit, time was _not_ flying by there." Pepper's tongue is in Bruce's mouth by now, and Tony clears his throat loudly. "Jesus, Pep, don't bogart him," he says. "It's my turn."

Pepper laughs a little against Bruce's mouth, and pulls back, and then Tony's kissing him, hard and wet and dirtier than Pepper, like he's trying to one-up her. Bruce hears Pepper chuckle, but in a way where it sounds like she's rolling her eyes.

By the time Tony pulls back, Bruce is breathless and half hard. "I wanna blow you, can I blow you?" Tony says, his face still close to Bruce's, his eyes black, all pupil.

"Um," Bruce says, feeling overwhelmed and tongue-tied. He inadvertently glances towards the stairs, worried for a second that Sasha might come down and catch them -- Sasha still doesn't know anything about their friends-with-benefits arrangement -- but then he remembers it's three in the morning, there's no way. "Yeah, okay."

Pepper shakes her head as Tony starts dropping to his knees, his hands pressing Bruce back against the counter. "Now who's hogging him?" she says.

But Tony just grins up at her, starting to undo Bruce's pants. "I'll just blow him a little bit, then he can fuck you, how's that sound?" he says.

Pepper smiles back down at him fondly. They have the weirdest relationship. "I guess that'd be okay," she says dryly. She's close beside Bruce now, leaning into him a little, and she starts kissing his neck.

"Seriously, you should've come along tonight," Tony says as he works Bruce's zipper down. "We could've fucked in the bathroom." He starts tugging Bruce's pants and underwear off.

Pepper laughs against Bruce's skin, low and dirty, which makes it sound like the two of them did, in fact, fuck in the bathroom. "Did you?" Bruce says, a little shocked, and on his knees in front of him, Tony wiggles his eyebrows, grinning, before he puts his mouth on Bruce's dick.

Bruce lets out a huff of breath. "Jesus," he says, his head tipping back a little, Pepper sucking on his neck. Tony's mouth is hot and wet and way too good at this, his tongue moving around the head of Bruce's dick, just the right amount of pressure teasing him.

"We missed you," Pepper murmurs against his throat, and Bruce turns his head into her, moving to kiss her on the mouth, even though he's gone all breathless. Her hands are in Bruce's hair, and Tony's hands are on his hips, and they smell good, and Pepper's dress is backless, so when Bruce's hand goes around to pull her closer all he touches is bare skin. And maybe it's not exactly the conclusion of Tony and Pepper's romantic date night that Bruce was envisioning, but it's not like he's complaining.

**

A few days later, Bruce is sitting in the library reading an article on gamma radiation in the latest issue of _Acta Physica Polonica B_ when Sasha comes in and flops noisily into the chair across from him, sighing heavily. Bruce looks at her over his glasses, trying not to smile. "Everything okay?" he asks her.

"No," she says, getting books out of her backpack. "I have so much homework, it's so unfair. Mr. Ballard hates me."

Bruce can't help smiling for real. "How could anyone hate you?" he says.

Sasha gives him a look like, _give me a break_. Bruce laughs. "I was being serious," he says.

Sasha rolls her eyes. "I know," she says. "It was so dorky, oh my God."

Bruce laughs again and tosses his pencil at her, missing on purpose. "Hey!" she says, dodging exaggeratedly, but her round face has lit up, laughing, her dark eyes bright. She has the exact same eyes as Tony, actually, which sometimes feels strange.

"Get back to work, brat," Bruce says, grinning, and she gets a worksheet out of a folder, settling down into it. Bruce goes back to his article, a warm silence falling over the room, just crackling from the fireplace and Sasha's pencil scratching across the paper.

Twenty minutes later, Bruce is checking some of the math in this article to confirm one of the authors' proofs when Sasha says thoughtfully, "How does the Iron Man suit work, anyway?" When Bruce looks up, surprised, she's doodling something in the corner of her worksheet that might look like Iron Man, flying across the sky. Huh.

Bruce pushes his glasses up his nose. "I'm not clear on all the details, actually," he says. "I think it's mostly like a fancier jet pack. But I'm not an engineer. You should ask Tony, he'd probably like to explain it to you."

Sasha wrinkles up her nose. She still avoids talking to Tony at all, so it's interesting she's getting interested in the suit. "I thought you knew about all science stuff," she says, like he's gravely disappointed her. "If you're not an engineer, what are you?"

Bruce tries not to smile too much. _Science stuff_. "I'm a physicist," he says. "I got my doctorate in nuclear physics."

"Oh," Sasha says. "But Tony has a doctorate in engineering?"

Now Bruce _really_ tries not to smile, but it has gotten difficult. "No, he just has two master's degrees," he says. "No doctorate."

"Oh," Sasha says, like this is very interesting. "Wait, so does that mean you're smarter than he is?"

"You know," Bruce says. "You should ask him exactly that question, exactly that way. He'll love it."

Sasha laughs. "Like I have two hours to listen to him freak out," she says witheringly, and goes back to her worksheet.

"Listen to who freak out?" Tony says as he comes through the doorway. He's chewing gum and wearing one of his sleeveless shirts, a little sweaty like he's been hammering something down in the garage. His bare arms are lean and muscular, and his hair is rumpled, a lock of it falling over his forehead. Sasha shoots Bruce a mischievous, caught look, but Tony doesn't even pause to let them answer. "So this is where you two've been hiding, I've been looking all over the place," he says, mildly tetchy. "Bruce, I'm bored, where'd you put that file on SHIELD's dark energy research?"

Bruce stares at him. "I didn't put it anywhere," he says. "You had it last."

"Oh," Tony says. He sprawls into the chair next to Sasha, obviously not too concerned. "Whatcha doing, math?" he says to her, reaching out for her worksheet.

"No, social studies," she says, trying to pull it away from him, but it's too late.

"Huh, funny," Tony says dryly, looking at the worksheet, then raising an eyebrow at her. "This looks exactly like math. Why are you always lying to me? Is this like how you say you hate earth science and your favorite subject is English?"

"My favorite subject _is_ English," Sasha says. Tony's obviously just kidding around, but she's gone sullen on him, the way she always does when Tony comes in the room, clamming up like she's a completely different kid. Also, Bruce is pretty sure that Tony's right and her favorite subjects secretly are math and science -- he caught her reading one of his astronomy textbooks the other day -- but he figures if Tony Stark was _his_ father, he might not want to let on that he was into science either. The enthusiasm would just be too much.

"This math looks too easy," Tony says, scanning the worksheet. "Are you bored? I bet you're bored. We could get you in a more advanced class."

Sasha looks wary and confused. "I'm in the most advanced class," she says, like she thinks Tony just has no idea what classes she's taking.

"Uh, yeah, for seventh grade," Tony says. "Which is a waste of your time, you could skip right to tenth at least, I've seen your test scores."

"I don't want to skip a grade!" Sasha says, sounding panicked. "Everyone at school already hates me!" She snatches her worksheet back from Tony.

"Jeez, it was only an idea," Tony says.

Sasha is still looking at him like he threatened to kill her puppy, but when he looks like he's not going to push the issue, her shoulders relax a little bit, and after giving him a hard look she starts to turn back to her homework. As soon as she's not looking at him, Tony rolls his eyes at Bruce. Bruce smiles ruefully and shrugs at him. Give her time, she'll come around, he tries to say with his expression, and Tony says back with _his_ expression that he doesn't believe him. It's a conversation they have had in actual words about fifty times at least.

It's funny Tony doesn't just give up trying to get Sasha to like him, when he's so convinced she never will, but Tony can be persistent like that. Bruce knows that better than anybody. And Tony's heartbreakingly crazy about the kid, which is a perpetual surprise.

"What were you working on downstairs?" Bruce asks him, trying to change the subject.

Tony shrugs. "The latest model. But it's not coming together." He's obviously in one of his more restless moods, frustrated with the suit, twitchy and kicking Bruce's ankle under the table. He picks up Sasha's folder idly and starts paging through it as he talks. "I think I need a break, you know, a new project. You're working on some new alloys, right?"

"Yeah, I was," Bruce says, "though right now I think that --"

"Whoa, whoa, whoa, what is this?" Tony interrupts, staring at something in Sasha's folder.

"What?" Bruce says, trying to crane his head to see, but from across the table he can't.

Sasha apparently can though, because she glances over at whatever Tony's looking at and her eyes widen. "Nothing!" she says and tries to grab it, but Tony whips it away.

"Parent-teacher conferences?" Tony says flatly. "This is tomorrow night. When were you going to tell me?"

Sasha is turning red. "Whatever," she mutters. "I didn't think you'd care."

"Uh, _parent_ -teacher conferences," Tony says, tapping the word 'parent' on the sheet. "I'm supposed to be there, aren't I?"

Sasha squirms in her chair, eyes darting around the room like she's looking for a way out. "Everyone stares at you," she finally mumbles down at the table, so quiet it's almost impossible to hear her.

Tony leans in to try to catch that. "Everyone stares at me?" he says. "What do you care? You won't be there."

Sasha's head comes up and she glares at him, looking on the verge of tears. "At the PTA, you told Mason Linker's mother I was a beautiful genius!" she says.

Tony looks flabbergasted. "How is that bad?"

"Mason's the most popular boy in school!" Sasha says. "The popular kids called me Beautiful Genius for two weeks!"

Oh God. Bruce winces, but Tony looks like he doesn't see the problem. "Jesus," he says. "Sorry I'm proud of you. Fine, I won't talk to what's-his-name's mother this time, now can I go?"

"Don't talk to _anyone_ ," Sasha says, but she doesn't look mollified at all, still worked up and furious he found the information sheet. Pepper's out of town and so she won't even be there to rein Tony in, so Bruce guesses he doesn't really blame her. But he still doesn't love how Sasha's making Tony look, how up front she's being about how much he embarrasses her.

Sasha starts gathering up her papers, shoving them all back into her folders. "I'm going to my room," she says, not looking at Tony, and stalks off, leaving Tony and Bruce alone in the library.

Bruce looks over at Tony, ready to roll his eyes ruefully at melodramatic tweens, but Tony's face is like a closed door, his eyes dark and flat. After a second he looks back at Bruce and forces a tight smile that doesn't quite reach his eyes, shrugging in a way that is probably supposed to look casual. "Hey, I guess I wouldn't want me for a father either," he says, and pushes back from the table. He probably intended that to sound like a joke, but it didn't at all.

"Tony," Bruce starts, a little surprised -- but then Tony's always a little more sensitive than you think he is, that glib exterior.

"Gotta get back downstairs," Tony says. "In the middle of fixing the newest model."

His back looks tight as he hits the door, and Bruce doesn't know whether he should go after him or not. But he himself would want to be left alone, so in the end he does the same for Tony.

**

Tony's bad moods usually don't last too long, so Bruce expects it to be over by dinnertime, but hours later, Tony's still downstairs, playing heavy metal loud enough that Bruce can hear it through the floor. He wishes Pepper weren't off at that conference in New York -- he feels vaguely like a substitute teacher who suddenly got asked to compose the final exam.

Even so, it is time for dinner, and Sasha needs to be fed, so Bruce takes a deep breath and heads downstairs to wheedle Tony into coming up to eat with them.

Normally when Bruce gets down there, Tony visibly perks up, excited to show off what he's working on, happy Bruce has come down to play, since Bruce hasn't been here long enough for the novelty to wear off yet. But this time Tony doesn't look up or turn down the music, even when Bruce comes right over and sits down next to him.

"Hey," Bruce says, but Tony still doesn't look over, and Bruce isn't sure that he even spoke loudly enough to be heard over the music. He reaches over Tony to the console displaying the speaker information, and turns the music down.

"I was listening to that," Tony says irritably, still flicking equations and simulations from one screen to another, quickly enough that Bruce is pretty sure he's not concentrating on any of them.

"You okay?" Bruce says.

Tony still doesn't look at him. He shrugs a little, the slump of his shoulders miserable and self-pitying, and he looks so much like Sasha right now it's a little uncanny.

"She's just being twelve," Bruce says. "Every kid hates their parents when they're twelve. And her mom just died, and she's at a new school in a new city. She'll settle in. It's not you, she's just... you know, miserable in general."

Tony shrugs again, and for a second Bruce thinks he isn't going to say anything, but then he sighs and says, "I know." Bruce hasn't heard Tony sound that tired and defeated before. It's more grownup than he's ever heard Tony, actually. It makes Bruce feel twitchy and anxious, and when he glances down he notices that he's twisting his hands over each other. He makes himself stop.

"You're still going to go to parent-teacher night, right?" he says to Tony.

"Yeah," Tony says. "Yeah, I'll go." He glances at Bruce and smiles a little ruefully. "My dad never went to a single parent-teacher night. If I do everything the opposite of him, I can't fuck up too bad, right?"

Bruce smiles back at him, feeling relieved to see Tony relaxing a little. Thank God.

Tony sighs again and runs his hand through his hair, his hand smearing a little grease on his forehead. He must've been working on one of the cars a minute ago. "Do you think she really is just embarrassed?" he says. "Or are we going to find out anything tomorrow that she doesn't want us to know? I mean, is she failing anything, do you think?"

Bruce blinks. "I'd be surprised," he says slowly. "Uh, what do you mean by 'we'?"

"What do you mean, what do I mean?" Tony says. "When we're there."

"Uh...," Bruce says. "But… why am I going?"

Tony blinks, looking a little taken aback. "I don't know," he says. "I just thought -- I mean, you live here, and Sasha likes you a lot better than she likes me anyway. You help her with her homework."

"I guess," Bruce says. "But… I mean, don't you think it would look weird to show up to parent-teacher conferences with some random guy?"

Tony blinks even more at that, face going closed off, how uncannily shut down he can look when he wants to. "You're right," he says after a second. "Pretty faggy."

Oh shit. "No, I didn't mean --" Bruce says.

But Tony cuts him off, shaking his head a little like he's shaking Bruce off.

"Never mind," Tony says, his voice forced back to flip, almost convincing in its casualness. "No big deal. Of course you're not going, why would you go?"

"Tony," Bruce says. God, he didn't think Tony would take it like that -- but actually, now that Tony's bringing it up, the tabloids probably _would_ be all over Tony taking a guy to parent-teacher conference. Once they took a picture of Tony and Bruce out on the street in New York and there were all these gossip blog posts about Tony being closeted and cheating on Pepper, even though he and Bruce weren't even touching in the pictures.

Still, though, he didn't think Tony would get upset over Bruce not wanting to go to parent-teacher conferences. He doesn't know what to say, so he reaches out to put his hand on Tony's leg -- maybe messing around a little will make him feel better, show him Bruce didn't mean anything by it. But Tony pulls away before Bruce can touch him, moving to turn the music back up. "Tony," Bruce tries to yell over the music, but Tony just waves him off, going back to looking between the specs on screen and the wires he's soldering to match.

"You coming up for dinner?" Bruce yells, feeling slightly ridiculous. He wishes Pepper were home.

He doesn't think Tony could have heard him, but Tony yells back, "Not hungry!" and goes back to ignoring Bruce so thoroughly he might as well be invisible. Bruce sits there and watches him for another minute, hoping Tony will settle down and talk to him, but when Tony just turns AC/DC up louder, Bruce finally turns away and goes back upstairs while he still has some of his hearing left.

**

Sasha's still locked in her room too, and maybe Bruce should be the mature one and make her come eat dinner, but Jesus, he's bad at this. He made things ten times worse with Tony, and Tony's an adult -- Bruce should really go back overseas where he barely speaks the language, where he doesn't feel responsible for anyone's emotional needs. And why does he feel responsible, anyway? This is a casual thing. He's just staying here; Sasha's not his kid. Tony's not even his boyfriend.

Even so, he's standing in the hallway trying to make himself go in and no doubt blow it with Sasha too when his phone starts ringing. The caller ID says that it's Pepper. For a second Bruce actually thinks about sending it to voicemail, because he's not sure he can deal with disappointing yet another one of them right now, but then he rolls his eyes at himself and answers.

"Hey," Pepper says on the other end, sounding warm. "Everything okay?" Which is not the normal way she starts a phone call, and which sounds suspiciously like she knows the whole household is having a meltdown right now.

"Uh," Bruce says. He starts heading back toward the living room in case Sasha can hear him through the door, even though he's a little ways down the hallway from her room. "Did Tony text you?" Of course Tony texted her, probably to complain about what homophobe Bruce is.

"No," Pepper says. "Why, what happened?"

Bruce blinks. "Then how did you know something was wrong?"

"Well," Pepper says. She kind of sounds like she's rolling her eyes. "Tony hasn't been replying to any of my texts all afternoon. And neither have you."

"You texted me?" Bruce says, blinking even more. He sits down on the couch and wants to check his texts but he's not sure if he can when he's talking on the phone at the same time. He's still not used to having a smartphone. "I didn't hear them."

"I know," Pepper says. "So what happened?"

Bruce sighs, and tells her.

"Oh," Pepper says when he's finished. She sounds a little sad.

"You think I should go to parent-teacher night," Bruce says.

"No," Pepper says. "I mean, not if you don't want to."

Bruce feels himself bristling a little. "It's not that I don't want to," he says. "I just -- anyway, do you honestly think it's a good idea to bring me of all people inside a school? Far away from the exits?" He feels trapped so much more easily when he's inside of buildings, his heart starting to race just from anxiety, emotions already heightened -- it's one thing to go with Tony to pick Sasha up and sit in the carpool lane, but another thing to actually go inside.

"It's at night," Pepper says, suspiciously like she's already weighed the pros and cons of the other guy and Sasha's school. "It's not like it'll be full of kids."

"Even so," Bruce says. "It's not going to exactly go over well if anybody recognizes me." He doesn't know if PTAs typically organize mobs with pitchforks, but there's a first time for everything.

"Who cares?" Pepper says.

Bruce snorts a little, rubbing his forehead. "Yeah," he says. "Well." He suddenly feels very tired. He's pretty sure they'll care, when the penny finally drops, when they realize in a visceral way that it's pretty fucked up to have Bruce around a kid.

Eight or nine years ago, Bruce lived with a woman in Quito for a few months, a woman who had a little boy. And she thought Bruce was great too, until the day of the incident, when Bruce lost control. He's always had a thing about women and children being threatened -- it's embarrassingly transparent when he thinks about it, which he tries not to do. And afterwards, when he came back to the house to get his clothes, she had grabbed Joaquin to pull him away from Bruce, cowering back in the corner of the room, her body half in front of the little boy's like she thought Bruce would hurt him. And Bruce has fairly vivid memories of being a little boy just like that, terrified in his mother's arms as she tried to shield him from the grown man who -- anyway. It wasn't the best day he's ever had. But it was his own fault for thinking it'd be okay for him to have an actual relationship, that it'd be okay for him to be around a kid.

He doesn't want Pepper and Tony to ever end up looking at him like that. That's why this has to be casual, why he has to be careful, why he'll have to leave before he puts any of them in actual danger. He's so much more in control of himself now than he was back then, but now that Sasha's here, all awkward arms and legs, not fitting in anywhere, so Bruce gets this helpless burst of tenderness every time he looks at her….

"You know it's dangerous for me to be here," Bruce finally says, in what must be the understatement of the year.

Pepper lets that sentence sit there for a minute in the silence between them, really thinking about it. "You know," she says finally. She sounds like she's being careful, choosing her words very deliberately. "I don't know that it is. You -- the Hulk saved Tony, you know. I saw him jump out of the sky and catch him. I think maybe we're safer with you here."

Bruce closes his eyes for a second, breathes deeply, tries to think about something else. The ocean out the windows. Sea urchins. "Well," he says when he opens them again, sounding more sardonic than he means to. "That's a nice thought." He knows she believes that now -- he also knows she'll stop believing that the second she's in the same room when he turns into the other guy. No one ever thinks of him the same after that.

Pepper lets out a little amused breath, rueful.

Bruce sighs, feeling himself giving in in spite of his best efforts. "Tony would be awful at these conferences by himself, wouldn't he," he says. It's not really a question.

"He tends to be awful at those kinds of things, yes," Pepper says. "They make him nervous."

Bruce rubs his forehead. "Are you sure you can't fly home to go with him?" he says. "Isn't that why Tony has a private jet?"

Pepper laughs. "If Tony wants to keep his private jet, one of us has to actually run the company," she says, which Bruce _guesses_ isn't a terrible point.

Bruce wishes he weren't about to do what he suspects he's known all along he would eventually do. He sighs again. "I guess I could go," he says. He's never been good at sticking to his guns on things like this. It's a character flaw.

When Pepper responds, her voice is warm and entirely unsurprised. "That would be really kind of you," she says.

Bruce snorts. "You knew I was going to all along, didn't you?" he says.

He can hear Pepper smiling on the other end. "I never know what you're going to do," she says. Liar.


	2. Chapter 2

Everybody more or less settles down when Bruce says he'll go to parent-teacher night. Sasha seems to feel like it's more acceptable to have Tony there if Bruce is there to stop him from doing anything too embarrassing, and it doesn't seem to have occurred to her to be embarrassed about the two of them going like Sasha has two daddies. Tony relaxes too, going back to normal like the whole fight about it never happened, which makes Bruce feel a little nervous, but what can you do.

That night as Bruce is heading for bed, he sees that Sasha's light is still on, even though it's 11:30. He pauses in the hallway, weighing whether it's too parent-y for him to tell her to go to sleep -- it definitely is, but she's going to be exhausted in the morning, and it's not like Tony is going to tell her to turn the light off, so.

He knocks on the door softly, then opens it. "Hey," he says, and then sees that it's just that she fell asleep with the light on, a paperback book on her chest with one of her fingers still in it. She looks even more like Tony when her face is at rest like this, a younger, more vulnerable Tony, soft baby skin, her face round and relaxed, one hand falling off the bed. When Bruce gets over closer to take the book away, he sees that it's a Star Trek tie-in novel.

He puts the book on her bedside table, pulling the covers up over her, and resisting the very strong urge to kiss her on the forehead before he turns the light out. God, he needs to get himself under control -- ever since Sasha moved in, it's felt a little bit like he and Tony and Pepper are playing house, so no wonder Tony assumed he'd go to parent-teacher conferences. But she's not his, and it's so weird of him to accidentally keep acting like she is, checking on her and tucking her in. What a pathetic childless middle-aged man.

If the gamma accident had never happened, and he and Betty had stayed together, their kids might be about this age. He wishes he didn't keep remembering that, but he can't seem to stop lately. They were going to have three, and sometimes he thinks about them, those three phantom might-have-been children with Betty's eyes. Two girls and a boy, just getting to the age where he embarrasses them the way Tony embarrasses Sasha, the boy's voice starting to crack.

He probably would've messed those kids up anyway, though. It's just as well that they never happened, since it's not like good-father genes run in his family.

Sasha doesn't stir as he leaves the room, shutting the door behind him, and Bruce feels restless, thinking about Betty, thinking about Tony wanting him to go to parent-teacher conferences. He was just going to go to bed himself, but in his room he can't settle to anything, trying to read to wind down, but he can't focus. And he knows Sasha's safely asleep...

When he knocks on the door of Tony and Pepper's room, Tony says, "Yeah?" and when Bruce goes in, Tony's sitting up in bed typing something on his phone. "Hey," Tony says, smiling at him, obviously pleasantly surprised. He's not wearing a shirt, just pajama pants, so the arc reactor is bright and unshaded, that unearthly blue glow embedded in his chest, radiating scar tissue.

"Hey," Bruce says. "What're you doing?"

Tony shrugs and tosses his phone down on the bed. "Sexting Pepper," he says.

"Oh," Bruce says, suddenly feeling awkward, like he's intruding. "Sorry." He starts to open the door back up.

Tony rolls his eyes. "Bruce," he says. "It's not private. Get back in here."

Sheepish, Bruce shuts the door again. "Pepper tried sexting you earlier anyway," Tony says as Bruce comes over to sit on the edge of the bed next to him, "but she said you were playing hard to get."

"She sexted me?" Bruce says, startled. He gets his phone out of his pocket. "Why do I never hear this thing?" The text from Pepper reads _i miss your cock_. Bruce feels his face getting hot.

"Let me see," Tony says, taking the phone out of Bruce's hand. "Uh, you probably don't hear it because you set your texts to silent," Tony says, thumbs moving fast over the phone. When he hands it back to Bruce, the ringer's back on and Tony's texted Pepper back. _it misses you too_ , the text says. _it wants to fuck your mouth._

Bruce's face gets hotter, and then the phone beeps, and Pepper's texted back, _Tony, is that you?_ Bruce laughs. "She knows it was you," he says.

"Of course she does," Tony says. He's put his hand on Bruce's leg, and he's looking at him with his eyes bright, smiling a little. "So," he says. "What're you doing here?"

Bruce shrugs, trying to will himself to stop blushing. "Um," he mumbles. "I saw your light was still on, so…." He leans in, moving to kiss Tony, and he can feel Tony smiling against his mouth -- Tony's always so delighted if Bruce ever initiates anything.

"Yeah?" Tony murmurs, and then he's kissing Bruce back, hot and eager, moving to tug Bruce up onto the bed with him, hands sure and everywhere. Tony always touches Bruce like he does everything, like he has a right to, like all this too is his, hands broad and splaying over Bruce's back, his ass, tugging Bruce's t-shirt over his head.

Bruce starts to lose himself in it fast, Tony sucking on his lower lip, palming his dick as he gets Bruce's pajama pants off, the two of them skin to skin, Tony groaning as Bruce runs his fingertips over the scarring around the arc reactor.

"Shit, that's good, you're so hot," Tony says into his mouth.

"I'll say," says Pepper, from… somewhere. Which is -- what? Bruce jumps a little, looking around, already feeling so dazed from kissing he can hardly think. It's not hard to find her, though, because her image is projected on the whole wall across from the bed. Tony's got her on a video call, apparently, and of course that whole wall is a screen, because this is Tony Stark's house so why wouldn't it be. Bruce is suddenly extremely aware that he's naked and hard, and has to suppress the urge to cover himself up, even though Pepper's obviously seen it all before. But why is she on the phone?

"Hi, Pep," Tony says

Pepper's smiling. "Hi," she says. "Hi, Bruce."

"Um," he says, feeling a little tongue-tied. "Hi."

Pepper looks at him, then looks at Tony. "You didn't tell him you were calling me, did you?" she says to Tony.

Tony shrugs, smirking like crazy, looking way too pleased with himself. "I didn't want him to get all repressed about it like the first time I brought up phone sex," he says. "Should I suck on his dick a little to make it up to him?" He starts kissing down Bruce's neck to his chest, his hand on Bruce's hip, his mouth hot and his tongue wet as he presses it against Bruce's skin, and Bruce can't think straight.

"I'm sure you have more than that to make up to him," Pepper says. "I hope he's not giving you too much trouble, Bruce."

She kind of sounds like Bruce is the babysitter, and Tony's still kissing lower, down to Bruce's stomach now. Bruce says, "I, uh," dumbly.

Tony murmurs to Pepper against Bruce's skin, "I've been terrible, I definitely need to be punished. When are you coming home?"

"Forty-four hours," Pepper says, and sighs.

"That long?" Bruce says, startled. He thought she was coming home tomorrow -- it already feels like she's been gone a thousand years.

That makes Pepper smile, her eyes warm and looking right at him. "Unfortunately," she says. Then she smirks a little, looking mischievous. "I hear your cock misses me."

Bruce's face immediately goes hot, and the awareness of how badly he must be blushing just makes him blush more. He's still not used to that kind of stuff coming out of Pepper's mouth.

It must be obvious even over the video feed, because Pepper gets that expression on her face that she gets when she thinks Bruce is being unbearably cute, which always makes him feel really self-conscious. "Oh, Tony, he's blushing," she says, like she can't help herself. Usually when she gets this look on her face she immediately kisses Bruce, but obviously she can't right now.

Tony looks up from where he's kissing dangerously low on Bruce's belly, smiling when he gets a good look at Bruce's face, his eyes all alight. "You want me to kiss him for you?" he says, glancing over at Pepper. So he knows that look of hers too.

"Yes, please," she says, and Tony scoots up again, taking Bruce's face in both his hands the way Pepper always does when she really wants to kiss him. Tony presses their mouths together gentle and warm, and even though Bruce can feel Tony's beard scratching him, it's crazy how much it feels like the way Pepper kisses, soft and sweet and deepening unexpectedly. Bruce didn't know Tony could do that, make it almost feel like Pepper's really here.

By the time Tony pulls back, Bruce feels breathless, even more dazed than he already was. "Oh," he says.

Tony's pupils are blown wide and dark too. "That good, Pep?" Tony says, without looking over at her.

"Yes," Pepper says. Her voice is a little breathless.

This time Tony glances at her. "You touching yourself?" he says. His voice is low and intimate and dark.

After a second, Pepper says, "A little bit." When Bruce manages to look at her and focus his eyes, he can see that she looks flushed herself.

"What do you want to do to him next?" Tony asks her, that same tone in his voice that makes Bruce want to shiver.

"I think if I were there, I'd want to get my mouth on him," Pepper says. Her voice sounds low and husky, and she's looking right at Bruce. He swallows.

"Mmm, yeah," Tony says, and starts moving down Bruce's body again, hands hot against Bruce's thighs. He gets Bruce's dick in his hand, stroking it up and down leisurely, looking up at Bruce where he's sitting up against the headboard. Then he puts his tongue out, thick and wet, and licks Bruce from his balls to the tip of his cock.

"Jesus," Bruce murmurs, and puts his hand in Tony's hair. He feels like he can't catch his breath.

"Can you see, Pep?" Tony says, and then sucks the tip of Bruce's cock into his mouth before she even answers.

"Fuck," Bruce says, Tony's mouth so hot and slick, sucking with just the right pressure.

"Oh, yes," Pepper says. When Bruce manages to look at her, she's smiling a little, eyes lit up, staring at them.

Tony glances over his shoulder at her, then smirks and says, "Why do you still have your top on? Give Bruce a show, at least."

"Oh," Bruce says. "You don't have to -- um." Because Pepper has just unbuttoned her blouse, shrugging it off her shoulders, and there are her breasts. That screen really has great resolution -- Bruce can practically count her freckles.

Tony's mouth is on him again, and Pepper's boobs are right in front of him, Pepper caressing one with her hand, playing idly with the nipple, and somehow Tony is sucking his dick just the way Pepper does, doing that little swirl with his tongue that she always does, sucking him all leisurely and careful, not the fast eager way that's usually Tony's M.O. Bruce can't catch his breath, feeling like he's about to come already between the two of them.

"How's he doing, Bruce?" Pepper says. She sounds breathless again, and Bruce thinks that off-screen she's probably touching herself again.

"Um," Bruce says. Words feel a little out of reach, his brain moving slow. "Good. He, uh, he's doing it like you."

"Is he?" Pepper says, sounding pleased. "Good boy."

Tony smiles a little, his mouth red and stretched around Bruce's dick, and then he takes him in deeper, swallowing him down, so Bruce groans and tightens his fingers in Tony's hair.

"God, you look pretty," Pepper says. Bruce can't tell if she means him or Tony, but he doesn't know that he cares.

"I miss you," he pants out. "Come home."

**

Bruce wakes up to sunshine coming through the window, easing out of sleep slowly, conscious of wanting to stretch his muscles, sheets warm and soft under his cheek. He starts to roll over, and bumps into something warm and human-shaped and oh, that's Tony, he fell asleep in Tony's bed last night.

Oh shit, he wasn't supposed to do that. "Oh no," Bruce says, sitting up and fumbling for his watch… which isn't on the nightstand, because he is in Tony's bed and that is Tony's nightstand and he came in here last night after he was already wearing his pajamas.

"Shh," Tony mumbles beside him. When Bruce looks over, Tony's pulling the pillow over his head. It is early, judging from the pallor of the sunlight. Tony usually does try to get up to see Sasha off to school, but he only manages that about half the time.

"Good morning, Dr. Banner," JARVIS says. "It is 7:21 am." 

Oh no, they overslept -- Sasha leaves for school in fifteen minutes. _Shit._ JARVIS is saying something about the weather, but Bruce interrupts him. "JARVIS, why didn't you wake us up?"

"I'm sorry, sir, but Mr. Stark told me not to disturb you," JARVIS says. 

Ugh, of course he did. "Tony, fuck," Bruce says, shoving at him. "You idiot. We overslept." Someone is always up to make sure that Sasha eats breakfast, which she is probably not doing right now, and she is definitely going to notice if Bruce and Tony overslept _together_ , especially if Bruce comes out of Tony's room wearing only sweatpants.

"Oh my God, calm down," Tony says, but he does at least deign to open his eyes. "We've still got fifteen minutes before someone has to drive her, what are you panicking for?" He yawns, stretching out the last word, and runs his hand through his hair, sitting up slowly. "Besides, Happy can do it if we're not ready."

"You don't think she's going to notice me coming out of your room in the morning smelling like sex?" Bruce says, fumbling to get his pajama pants back on.

Unfortunately, this sentence just makes Tony smirk at him like he's remembering all the stuff he did to Bruce last night. "Do you?" he says, and leans over to sniff. Bruce gives him a look. "Oh, relax," Tony says. "She's 12, she doesn't know what sex smells like. Or, she better not."

"But what if she sees me coming out of here?" Bruce says. "She's 12, she's not stupid. I don't want you to lose custody."

Tony laughs a little, like Bruce said something ridiculous. "Lose custody," he says. "Who exactly is fighting me for custody?"

It is true that it's not like Sasha has anyone else to take care of her -- that's how Tony got her, after all -- but still. Bruce shrugs, running his hand through his hair to attempt to get it a little un-bed-headed, and wondering if it's better or worse to come out of Tony's room wearing one of Tony's t-shirts than it is to come out wearing no shirt at all. "Well, yeah," he says. "But the courts still might not think this is a safe environment if they find out you're sleeping with a monster."

Better or worse notwithstanding, Bruce thinks he'd rather be wearing a shirt, so he goes to Tony's dresser to see if Tony has any t-shirts that aren't too garish. He's involved enough in trying to find one that it takes him a second to notice that Tony is being weirdly quiet. When he glances over at him, Tony looks uncharacteristically serious, sitting on the edge of the bed in his boxers. "Monster," he says, like Bruce saying that bothered him. Which is weird -- the bare facts usually aren't enough to bother Tony. Also, jeez, he needs to get moving.

Bruce tosses a t-shirt at Tony. "Hurry up and get dressed," he says, and starts pulling a t-shirt that he thinks is plain black over his head.

"That t-shirt says 'Female Body Inspector' on the back," Tony says. "Also, um, you're not a monster."

"What?" Bruce says, and looks at the back of the shirt. It does. He rolls his eyes and grabs one with an ouroboros on the front instead. It's a dark shirt, at least, not too obvious, not like coming out wearing a Black Sabbath shirt would be. "And whatever, fine, I turn into a monster. I don't know that Child Protective Services will make the distinction."

Tony is looking at Bruce dark-eyed and somber, but Bruce doesn't have time for this right now. He tugs the shirt down and heads for the door. "Okay," he says. "I'm going to try to get to my room without her seeing me. Give me a couple minutes before you come out so we're not too simultaneous."

Tony is still looking at him really intently, but after a second he nods, and Bruce slips out the door.

Unfortunately Bruce's room is down a hallway on the other side of the living room from where Tony and Pepper's room is. He crosses his fingers that Sasha's eating breakfast in the kitchen with her back to the door and breathes a sigh of relief as he slips past and sees that she is. He tries to head toward his room so he can change into his own clothes before Sasha sees him, but she must hear him moving because she turns.

"Morning," Bruce says, trying to pretend like he was just coming into the kitchen from his room, not going the other direction.

"Morning," Sasha says. She's eating a bowl of Cinnamon Toast Crunch.

"Sorry I wasn't up earlier," Bruce says. "Is Tony still asleep?" 

Sasha doesn't really react to that like it's a weird question, so maybe he's pulling this charade off. "I guess," she says.

"You get breakfast okay?" Bruce says. 

Sasha gives him a look like he's an idiot. "Yeah, I can pour myself cereal," she says. "I'm not a kid."

"Mmm," Bruce says, trying not to smile at that. "Okay, good, I'll go get dressed. I can take you to school in a minute."

"Is that Tony's shirt?" Sasha says. She takes a sip of milk, looking at him over the rim of the glass.

"Oh," Bruce says, trying desperately not to act panicky. "Uh, yeah, I think so. I think it got mixed up in the laundry."

Sasha shrugs like she didn't care much anyway. "Okay, uh, be right back!" Bruce says, and flees in the direction of his room. By the time he's actually dressed, Tony is in the kitchen asking Sasha if she has all her homework, and everything seems normal. So Bruce really shouldn't worry she's figured anything out. Right?


	3. Chapter 3

That night, Bruce tries to dress as unobtrusively as possible for parent-teacher conferences, trying to guess how other parents might dress, how he can blend into the crowd. He debates even wearing a suit, like he's a banker who just got done with work or something, but ends up going with a button-down shirt and dress pants, dark colors, aggressively bland. Tony, meanwhile, comes down wearing jeans and a Metallica t-shirt.

Bruce raises an eyebrow at him. "What?" Tony says.

"Oh my God," Sasha mutters, looking mortified, like this is already going worse than she expected. She looks helplessly at Bruce. "Can you loan him some of your clothes or something?"

Tony's mouth drops open, flabbergasted. "What?!" he says. After the many disparaging things he's said about how Bruce dresses, it's not surprising he'd be shocked. Bruce bites the inside of his cheek to try to stop from smiling.

"At least, like, a sweater to put over it?" Sasha says.

"A _sweater_?!" Tony says. "What's wrong with my shirt?"

"Oh my God, YOU ARE A MILLION YEARS OLD, YOU ARE NOT SUPPOSED TO WEAR BAND T-SHIRTS," Sasha yells, losing her temper all at once, and stomps out of the room. A few seconds later Bruce hears her door slam.

Tony looks at Bruce. "I'm not wearing a fucking sweater," he says.

"I don't know if her teachers will take you seriously in that shirt," Bruce says.

Tony rolls his eyes. "Nobody ever takes me seriously anyway," he says. 

**

Tony looks weird in a sweater. He must feel weird, too, because he keeps tugging at it, squirmy and uncomfortable. "You okay?" Bruce finally says while they're waiting in the school hallway for the first teacher to be ready for them, as Tony rolls up the sleeves that he just rolled down two minutes ago.

"Is it always this itchy?" Tony says irritably.

"You're the one who insisted on wool," Bruce says.

Tony shoots Bruce a look like he's a little embarrassed for Bruce. "Uh, that other one was a _polyester blend_ ," he says.

Bruce lets out an amused breath. "Okay," he says.

Tony fidgets, tapping his fingers in sequence against the wall behind him, palms flat against the cinder blocks, and Bruce feels twitchy too. He shoves his hands deep in his pockets to try to keep from being obvious that he's nervous, but every time another parent walks by and eyes him and Tony, he feels like flinching, way too visible in this hallway. He's not even sure if they're looking at them because they're two men in apparently a co-parenting situation, or because Tony's so recognizable, or because, God forbid, they might recognize Bruce too. Bruce is way less famous than the rest of the Avengers when he's not actively the other guy, so most people in the world wouldn't recognize his actual face, but you never know.

He wishes he still didn't get so nervous when he's in public places in the States. He's so overly aware of how many people are around, how confined the school hallway seems, how far away the doors are.

He thinks he's at least hiding it pretty well, but then Tony says, "You okay?"

When Bruce looks up, Tony's watching him with that sharp, assessing look in his eyes. At least it looks like watching Bruce is making Tony forget his own nervousness. "Oh," Bruce says. "Yeah," He tries to consciously relax his muscles, but it doesn't really work.

Sasha's history teacher finally calls them in. "Hi, I'm Tony, Sasha's father," Tony says as he sits down. "And this is Dr. Bruce Banner."

That introduction might as well be designed to confuse the teacher. "Are you… Sasha's therapist?" he says. Which is a reasonable leap to make, a lot more reasonable than guessing that Tony brought a random nuclear physicist to parent-teacher night. 

"No," Bruce says, trying not to fidget. "I'm a, uh, family friend," he says. God, it's so weird for Tony to bring him to this, he feels so uncomfortable.

Tony shoots him a glance at that, but at least doesn't say anything embarrassing or correct him. The teacher looks a little confused, but lets it go.

Sasha is doing fine academically. Obviously. She is not doing so great socially, also obviously. Tony shifts in his seat, obviously aggravated, whenever anyone even mildly suggests that this might be partially Sasha's fault, but for the most part Tony behaves himself through the first three conferences.

Then they get to her math teacher, Mr. Ballard, a gray-faced, crumpled, crabby old man. Who, it becomes obvious as he starts talking, definitely does hate Sasha. She doesn't pay attention in class. She is rude and uncooperative. She reads under her desk while the lesson is going on.

"Oh, really?" Tony says. "That's so hard to believe, you're telling me she doesn't want to look at your fuc--" Bruce steps on Tony's foot, hard, before he can finish that sentence with what is clearly about to be something unforgivable. "Ow!" Tony says, glaring at Bruce.

But Bruce isn't exactly happy with this teacher either. "She doesn't pay attention?" he says, in as pleasant a tone as he can muster. "So I guess that's affecting what she's learning -- she's not doing well on her tests and quizzes?" He already knows that's not true, he's seen the graded papers in her homework folder.

"Well," Mr. Ballard says, looking irritated. "No. But she --"

"Oh," Bruce says. "But when you call on her, she doesn't know where you are in class, she can't answer your questions?"

Tony's looking at Bruce with his eyes bright and fierce, a go-get-him look, before he looks back at her teacher challengingly. Mr. Ballard frowns more. "That's not the point," he says. Uh huh, that's what Bruce thought.

Tony leans back in his chair, his body language casual and in control, arms crossed over his chest. "Yeah, so what exactly is the point?" he says, his voice as polite as Bruce's, and as dangerous.

"The point," Mr. Ballard says, "is that she disrupts class for the other students. I know she has an unusual home life, but that's not an excuse." His mouth twists distastefully as he says 'unusual home life,' and out of the corner of his eye, Bruce can see Tony go very still.

"What exactly do you mean by that?" Tony says. Bruce's heart is beating very hard. He knew it was a mistake for him to come to these conferences. Of course all the teachers can tell that he's fucking Tony and Pepper.

Mr. Ballard looks at Tony, then at Bruce, a disgusted look on his face like he thinks they're a couple of perverts. But then he says, "Having a notorious father who wields the Iron Man weapon and is constantly in the news doesn't exactly provide a stable influence."

Oh -- Iron Man. Okay. Bruce feels himself relax a little, but Tony just tenses up more. "What the _fuck_ does Iron Man have to do with Sasha?" Tony says, more coldly furious than Bruce has ever seen him, but Mr. Ballard doesn't back down -- in fact, he goes on to say a bunch of things about Sasha and about Tony that Bruce does not appreciate at all.

**

When they walk out of the school twenty minutes and two conferences later, Tony's still furious about Mr. Ballard. "I told you that math class was no good," he says. "It's too easy for her, that's why she doesn't pay attention."

"I know," Bruce says, trying to walk faster to keep up. He's a step and a half behind, and Tony's too mad to slow down. Bruce knows he's not mad so much about the teacher saying Sasha didn't pay attention in class as he is about the other insinuations, but he figures Tony's waiting until they get in the car and can't be overheard to get into the rest of it.

"We should pull her out of that class, I don't care what she says," Tony says. "Why's she wasting her time with basic geometry anyway when she's obviously ready for Calc II?"

"Well," Bruce starts, thinking about everything all the teachers said about how socially isolated Sasha is, but Tony cuts him off.

"Don't give me that. So what if she doesn't have friends, it's not like staying in that fucking travesty of a math class is going to magically get her friends," Tony says.

Bruce sighs. "Yeah," he says. They're up to the car, finally, so he can actually see Tony's face over the roof of it.

"I did not like that man," Tony says, yanking the car door open. "I do not like her being in his class."

"No," Bruce says, opening his own car door. He feels tired. He's been taking deep breaths ever since that conference, keeping his heart rate down, but it's taking a lot of focus and he's starting to feel the strain. And Tony's not exactly helping calm him down.

Tony throws himself into the driver's seat, and then starts tearing at his sweater. "And would you get this fucking itchy monstrosity off me?" he says, getting caught in one sleeve. Bruce reaches over to help, holding the sleeve so Tony can get his arm out, helping him get it over his head. Once it's off Tony throws it out the window with enough force that it lands a couple of parking spaces over, right in a puddle. 

"Hey," Bruce says.

"Relax," Tony says, his movements angry and frustrated as he jams the key into the starter. "That sweater is trash. I'll buy you a cashmere one." He turns the key so aggressively Bruce is afraid he's going to flood the engine, and actually screeches the tires getting out of the parking lot, shifting gears with sharp, angry motions. 

"Goddammit," he mutters as he takes a left turn almost on two wheels. "And how is it any of that asshole's business who I'm fucking? Unusual home life my ass, he can go to hell."

Bruce takes another deep breath, trying not to let himself get worked up. "I really think he just meant Iron Man," Bruce says.

"Are you fucking kidding me?" Tony says, taking the on-ramp onto the highway with so much acceleration Bruce is pressed back against the seat and finds himself jamming his foot at an imaginary brake. "You were the one who was sure everyone would be able to tell we were big homos if you came along to this, and congratulations, you were right."

Bruce sighs, trying to relax his hand where he seems to be gripping the door so hard his knuckles are turning white. Tony flies between cars, switching lanes every two seconds to get around people who are only going 15 miles above the speed limit. "You don't know that," Bruce says. "He -- I mean, anyway, having a dad who's a billionaire superhero is a lot more unusual than having a dad with a boyfriend."

Tony snorts, rolling his eyes and almost clipping a Honda Accord as he accelerates into the middle lane. "Oh, so now you admit you're my boyfriend," he says, leaving the Accord honking behind them and passing a semi like it's standing still.

"Figure of speech," Bruce says, taking another deep breath. "Please slow down." The other guy doesn't like when Bruce is in physical danger, and Bruce is having more and more trouble staying calm.

Tony rolls his eyes, not slowing down at all. He frowns at Bruce sourly and says, "Why aren't you angrier anyway? Jackass being a dick about the kid and about us and you're like fucking Gandhi over there."

Bruce just looks at him, breathing carefully through his nose and focusing all his energy on staying in his normal, human body. Seriously?

Tony winces. "Right," he says, looking back at the road and actually slowing down. "Fuck. Sorry." It's the first time in ten years that anyone's forgotten about Bruce's condition. It actually kind of feels like the nicest thing anyone's ever said to him.

Bruce shrugs, feeling his shoulders relax a little bit. "So she has a boring asshole for a teacher," he says, his heart rate finally starting to slow down. "I seem to remember all my teachers being boring assholes when I was that age. It's not the end of the world."

Tony shoots him a look, still dark and furious even though he's driving more calmly. "I'm taking her out of that class," he says. "He's lucky I don't have him executed. Along with anyone else who can't deal with us being together."

Bruce almost laughs, letting his head drop back against his seat. "I really think he was just talking about Iron Man," he says. But he moves his hand over to put it on Tony's knee, so Tony glances over at him in surprise, tight lines in his face relaxing a little bit. "But maybe we could get the school to let her do an independent study for math," he says. "She wouldn't have to go up a grade, the other kids wouldn't have to know. She could just sit in the office for that hour. We could get her a tutor."

"Right, a tutor," Tony says, still sounding disgusted, but he puts his hand on top of Bruce's on his leg, fingers dry and warm. "Two of the most brilliant scientists in the world live with her, but we should hire some zit-covered teenager to teach her math."

Bruce rolls his eyes. "You know, you're always overstating our brilliance," he says. "My publication record doesn't exactly support --"

Tony snorts. "Shut the fuck up, Bruce," he says, but he squeezes Bruce's hand before he goes to switch gears.

**

"Hey, Sasha!" Tony yells the second they're in the door. Bruce doesn't think that'll exactly work as a summoning tactic, since Sasha's probably in her room with her headphones on, but to his surprise, Sasha immediately pops into the front hall, looking nervous, like she's been waiting for them to get home.

"Yeah?" she says. Her eyes are wide and she's biting her lower lip.

"You wanna get out of Mr. Ballard's class?" Tony says. He's pointing at her, and talking in a clipped, angry tone.

Sasha just looks confused. "What?" she says. "Is that allowed?"

"We'll make it allowed," Tony says. "I'm Tony Stark, I can do whatever I want. You're Sasha Stark, you can too."

"That's not my last name," Sasha says, but her eyes are bright and intrigued.

"Um, and that is _not_ a good lesson," Bruce says.

Tony ignores him. "I don't want you in that class. That guy is a fucking asshole."

"Tony," Bruce says. He can feel a headache coming on.

But Sasha lets out a startled laugh, looking scandalized and thrilled all at the same time, eyes wide and shocked. "I know!" she says. It's about the first time she has looked anything other than sullen in Tony's presence, and Tony's so intent on hating Mr. Ballard that Bruce isn't sure he's even noticed.

"Good, it's settled," Tony says. "I'll call the school in the morning." He starts walking to the stairs, like his work here is done. Sasha hovers, looking after him, shifting her weight from one foot to the other. She obviously wants to ask him something.

"Tony," Bruce says, calling him back. Tony turns, and Bruce nods his head toward Sasha.

"Um," she says, looking unsure of herself, glancing sideways at Bruce before addressing Tony directly. "I, uh. How were the rest of the conferences?"

Tony smiles a little and takes a step toward her, tension in his body from being angry releasing a little. "Great," he says. "Everyone said you're doing good."

Sasha lets out a breath and her shoulders relax. Tony smiles a little more, his rare, real smile. "In fact," he says, "I hear you're a beautiful genius." He reaches out to rumple her hair, hand rough and affectionate on her head, and when she groans, he laughs.


	4. Chapter 4

The next night, Sasha and Tony come into the room already fighting -- a real fight, voices raised, clearly furious with each other. Other people being angry always makes Bruce tense up, a knot of anxiety in his stomach, especially if they're people he's living with. A remnant of childhood, when hearing angry voices meant you should make yourself scarce, but up till now it hasn't been much of an issue because Tony and Pepper are really pretty good-natured, their fights usually not moving beyond the level of bickering.

And hey, right at this moment Bruce is learning that if the people who are angry at each other are a father and child, he gets even more tense, so that's great. He automatically starts doing some of his deep breathing, keeping himself calm, and trying to resist the urge to disappear from the room. He's a grown man, dammit, he can tolerate being in the room while other people have what is probably a minor fight.

"God, it's not that big a deal, would you calm down?" Sasha says, red in the face, fists clenched.

"Jesus Christ," Tony says, and he looks so much bigger than Sasha, angry and looming over her. It's making Bruce's stomach clench up. Bruce takes another deep breath. "You break a million dollar piece of equipment and I shouldn't be aggravated?"

"It was an _accident_ ," Sasha says. "It's not like I did it on _purpose_."

"What the hell were you even doing touching the particle accelerator?" Tony says.

Sasha shrugs and mumbles something, a little shamefaced.

"Yeah, that's what I thought," Tony says, rolling his eyes. "So yeah, it'd be great if you could, you know, _ask permission_ before you go climbing around on things that could kill you. And I was working with that -- now I'm going to have to go down to Stark Industries to get the raw materials I need to weld that _literally irreplaceable_ part that you smashed. As in, no replacements exist on the planet." He's clearly legitimately annoyed, and he has a point, but it is almost funny to watch Tony Stark be inconvenienced for what is probably the first time in his life. Bruce tries to focus on that, how it's almost funny. He breathes in and out.

"Ugh," Sasha says, impotently furious. "So what? You can afford it!"

"Oh, sure," Tony says. "That makes it okay, then. It's not like it's going to take me hours to fix or anything."

"God," Sasha says. "You're being such a baby. You don't even have a job, who cares, it's not like you're busy!"

"For fuck's sake," Tony says, and swings his hand out toward Sasha's face.

It takes a horrible adrenalized second for Bruce to realize that Tony's just gesturing downstairs towards his workshop, that his hand is at least five feet away from Sasha. "I'm right in the middle of some R&D!" Tony is saying, as Bruce sees the wide space between Tony and Sasha, that he wasn't going to hit her, that he wasn't even close to hitting her. It's Tony, he would never. Bruce frantically gasps for breath to bring his heart rate down. "Just because I don't get a paycheck --" But then Tony breaks off, staring at Bruce. "Are you okay?" he says.

"Huh?" Bruce says. Wait, he's standing up. Did he jump up from the couch? He was so close to losing control it's terrifying; all his focus is going to staying calm. He puts his hand up to his forehead, trying to be normal, breathe deeply. "Yeah, uh huh, I'm fine." His heart is slowing down, the moment's passing, it's all okay.

Tony should be looking wary, realizing what almost happened, should be pulling Sasha away from Bruce and the other guy, but instead he's walking toward Bruce, totally forgetting the argument, no regard for personal safety. "Seriously, you don't look good," he says. "Are you sick? You look like you're going to throw up."

He reaches out for Bruce's shoulder, and Bruce jerks away without meaning to, all his nerves jangling. "Really, I'm fine," he says, more sharply than he intends.

Tony looks a little hurt, pulling his hand back. "Okay," he says. He pauses, watching Bruce carefully, that close attention Bruce would sometimes prefer not to get.

Bruce's face feels hot. He tries to smile, shrug it off, both Tony and Sasha looking at him like they think he might be on the verge of collapsing. "I'm fine," he says. "Um, so you're going to Stark Industries?"

"Yeah," Tony says slowly, but then he takes the hint and goes back to acting normal, shooting Sasha a baleful glance. "And Sasha's coming with me. Maybe if you _see_ how hard this is to get at, you'll understand that you should leave this shit alone." Sasha rolls her eyes at him, but keeps her mouth shut. "We'll be back before Pepper's flight, though," Tony says. " Or we better be." Pepper doesn't get in for another four hours.

Sasha still looks annoyed and shamefaced, but at least Bruce's little breakdown does seem to have slightly defused her and Tony's fight. "Whatever," she mutters. "Are you ready to go already?"

They're still arguing as they head for the door, but now it's more like bickering, the real feeling taken out of it. Fuck. That was just -- fuck.

It feels like adrenaline is still ricocheting through Bruce's body, and just, God. That was fucked up, that he thought that -- he's so fucked up. That he even for a second thought that Tony -- that is just some deep-seated childhood damage. He used to think he was mostly over it, but clearly that was wishful thinking and he's an irrevocable mess. God.

He needs to meditate or something, calm down, get himself centered again. At least it sounds like Tony and Sasha will be gone for awhile, so he can have some space to put himself back together.

He goes to his room and sits cross-legged on the floor, preparing to calm himself down. The ritual of it is soothing, at least, that helps, the practiced sinking into the rhythm of meditation, just focusing on his breathing, letting his muscles relax. He keeps accidentally flashing to the fight, then to little snatches of memories, of his father, but he keeps forcing those memories out again, just focusing on his mantra, his breath. He's safe. Sasha's safe.

He tends to lose sense of time when he's meditating, but when the door opens behind him, it still feels like Tony and Sasha barely left. "Back already?" he says.

"I thought it felt like I'd been gone a thousand years," Pepper says, voice lightly teasing, and Bruce jumps, swiveling around to look. She's there in the doorway of his room all right, in the flesh, tired and pretty and wearing a suit.

"What are you doing home?" he says, feeling genuinely off-balance. "Tony and I were going to pick you up at the airport." She shouldn't have had no one to meet her -- they had a whole plan. But God, it's good to see her, warm and put together and beautiful, and he really must've gone through the wringer over the last hour, and maybe the last few days, because for a second he's afraid he's going to cry with relief just looking at her.

"I skipped the last session of the conference," Pepper says, as Bruce gets to his feet to greet her. "I was tired of not being home." Bruce kisses her, and she kisses him back, soft and careful, her arms going around him. "You okay?" she says when they pull back a little, still holding onto him, and he doesn't know how she can always tell.

"Yeah," he says, though, because there's no point in getting into anything -- he's fine, it's just his own issues, nothing actually happened. He's dealing with it. "I'm glad you're home. Tony's going to be upset he's not here, he went to --"

"JARVIS told me," Pepper says, and kisses him again. She plays with the curls on the back of Bruce's head, stroking through them, hand gentle. When she pulls back, she says, "Are you sure you're okay?"

She's looking at him very seriously, like she really wants to know, and he's still not really used to people caring. It makes him feel a little self-conscious. He doesn't want to open up his whole screwed-up childhood and everything else, but it's Pepper, and after a second he can't help himself, he shrugs and mumbles, "I don't know, it's not that big a deal. Just, Tony and Sasha were fighting earlier, and it was kind of...."

He trails off, feeling his face start to heat up -- it's such a stupid thing to get upset about, a twelve-year-old fighting with her parent, like being upset that the sun rose today. He really doesn't want Pepper to make a whole thing out of it, he feels like an idiot, but maybe she can tell that, because after a second she just says, "Ah," like the whole span of the thing is clear to her, like it's not dumb to be upset. He knows she knows about his father -- he's pretty sure everyone knows, and the way he's blushing is probably making the connection pretty clear if it wasn't before. She's still stroking his hair, slow, soothing rhythm, and she puts her other hand up to cup his face, stroke the skin of his cheek, rasping over the stubble.

Bruce shrugs, still blushing. "It's okay," he says. "It wasn't a big deal. I'm fine."

"I know," Pepper says, smiling gently with her eyes full of empathy. After a second it's too much, he has to look away, glance down at the ground. But somehow he feels a little better, her hands on him, grounding him, and then he leans in to kiss her, fast and a little harder than before, just -- he just feels intense right now, a lot of things at once.

When he was a kid and something happened with his father, he never got comforted after -- it made his dad mad if his mother tried, if she acted like Bruce needed to be taken care of or might be upset, like that implied criticism of his father. So she stopped, and then after Bruce had gotten hit or his mother had gotten hit, he'd always be alone in his room, hurt and abandoned and furious in the dark. That's his most vivid memory of his childhood, more than his father's rages, more than anything, that lonely solitary fury, feeling like no one even cared.

Pepper's hand is stroking down his back now, and she's kissing him in this way that is somehow strong and comforting, that feels like she's taking care of him. She's a little bit taller than him, and he puts his hands on her hips, pulling her in closer and kissing her deeper.

"Mmm," she says, pulling back to rest her forehead against his. "So Tony and Sasha are probably going to be gone for awhile yet, huh? JARVIS said they just left a half hour ago."

Bruce laughs a little, relieved to just be normal again, even though she's still holding him close like she knows he needs it. "Uh huh," he says, and then faux-innocently, "why?"

Pepper laughs, and kisses him. "I missed you," she says, and kisses him again.

"Mmm," Bruce says as she starts walking him back toward his bed. "I missed you too." It feels good to have her touching him, her hands gentle and reassuring, and he feels like his heart rate is slowing down even more than when he was meditating, soothed and calm.

She presses him down onto his back, resting him against the pillows, and crawls on top of him, the position a little incongruous since she's still wearing a her pencil skirt and jacket. He's got his hands on her thighs, smiling up at her, and she leans down to kiss him, messy tendrils of her hair falling into his face.

"Here," he says, and at least starts to push the jacket off her shoulders. "You look so professional. Way out of my league."

She laughs. "CEOs have needs too," she says, and he runs his hands down her bare shoulders, then moves to cup her breast.

She makes a little noise in the back of her throat, and moves to kiss him again, hands stroking down his sides, but not moving under his clothes, and it feels weirdly good just to be making out with her like this, slow and easy, getting her rumpled up. He reaches for the clip in her hair and takes it out, so her hair tumbles down around her shoulders, an exact librarian-taking-her-hair-down sex fantasy.

She laughs at the expression he must have on his face and kisses him again. "What's with men and hair?" she says, kissing down his jaw.

He grins and shrugs. "You're pretty," he says, the only thing he can think of to say, already feeling sex-stupid and happy.

She laughs again and starts untucking his shirt, getting her hand up under it without bothering to unbutton it, touching the skin of his belly and chest. "I like you," she says.

She's straddling him, rocking a little against his cock through their clothes, kissing him with lots of tongue, and yeah, they were going kind of slow, but he's getting hard, his hands back to resting on her thighs. He wishes she weren't wearing stockings and a pencil skirt, it's always such a pain to get them off, but he can't help starting to slide his hands higher up her legs, rucking up her skirt, especially when she moans a little, encouraging.

He's not expecting it at all when suddenly he's touching bare skin high up on her thigh, because these aren't tights, apparently these are thigh-high stockings, and oh, that's dirty. He takes a breath in and pulls back to look at her, his dick twitching in his pants, and she grins down at him. "Oh," he says, feeling dumb.

She grins and kisses him. "I knew I was coming home today," she says, and Jesus, that's hot.

He can't help it, he needs to be touching her, so he moves to rub her through her underwear, which, um, yeah, so also it turns out she's not wearing any underwear, he's touching the bare skin of her cunt, and he's so startled he takes a sharp breath in.

She laughs, low and dirty, and rocks her hips a little, and he can feel how wet she is, and holy fuck. "Pepper," he blurts out. "Were you not wearing underwear all day?" God, if she's been like this all day long in conferences, making deals and negotiating and being effortlessly professional, and underneath she was naked and thinking about coming home to them, he just.

She's grinning at him, biting her lower lip, wiggling her eyebrows for a second in a fake leer, but then she laughs and admits, "No, I just took them off before I came in here."

He laughs back, but still kind of breathless -- God, it's almost as hot to think of her taking off her underwear because she was about to go into Bruce's room, that she was planning this all along. He rubs his thumb over her, feeling for her clit, and she takes a little breath in and closes her eyes when he finds it, slick against his fingers, and then she's leaning down to kiss him, harder and faster, and he'd like to take their time, get all the way naked and kiss her all over, but God, he wants to be inside her. They've been apart too long.

She must be feeling the same way, because instead of moving to get his shirt off, or to take off her own blouse, she just starts fumbling with his fly, unzipping it to get her hand in around him, and before he knows it she's got his dick out and is moving to slip him inside her, both of them still almost fully dressed as she slides down on him, her skirt rucked up around her hips but her silk blouse still in place, and somehow that's so hot he can hardly deal with it.

Pepper groans when he's all the way inside her, shifting a little to get comfortable, her face flushed. "Jesus, Pepper," Bruce murmurs, and moves to kiss her, his hands going to her hips, trying to hold still until she's ready, even though all he wants to do is fuck up into her.

"Mmm," she says, her hands on either side of his face, the moves to kiss his cheek and jaw. "You feel good." She rocks experimentally, slick and hot and tight around him, and then they're moving together, Bruce already breathless at the feel of her. It's so strange and sexy to be inside her while they're both still dressed, Bruce's pants just down far enough, Pepper's hands braced on his shoulders, through his button-down, moving faster and faster.

Bruce slides his hand to her clit, under her skirt, and she moans, starting to gasp as she moves her hips, sliding up until he almost comes out of her, then fast back down, and they've gotten good at this in the last few months, her body feels so familiar, and he feels desperate for her after just a few days away, already so close he's scared he might come before her. But then he presses his thumb against her clit with the pressure she likes and she gasps and says, "Bruce," and comes, squeezing down around him, and oh thank God. He shoves up into her a few more times, a little faster and harder and then he's coming too, coming so hard he feels it up his back, and Pepper's laughing and kissing him, dropping her head forward to his shoulder, and he just likes her so much.

Pepper curls up against his chest as they catch their breath, hand up under his shirt so she's touching his skin, playing with his chest hair a little. He kisses the top of her head, rubbing his thumb against the skin of her arm, and he feels so relaxed and happy now. "I'm glad you're home," he says.

Pepper laughs a little. "Rough couple of days?" she says.

Bruce laughs too, rueful. "You could say that."

"Teenagers are hard," Pepper says, with more feeling than Bruce was expecting, like she finds it hard all the time too. "I know everybody says that, but I still didn't think...." She trails off, and Bruce makes a very heartfelt noise of agreement before he feels bad about acting like Sasha's so terrible.

"It wasn't even her," he says, because it wasn't. It was Tony's hurt feelings and how Bruce is a fucked-up mess, even though yeah, Sasha was maybe a little bratty at times. "I mean, mostly."

He thinks Pepper will disagree, because Sasha's pretty mean to her all the time, but to his surprise, Pepper says, "No, she's okay. It's more how -- it's like having a little walking flashback of every terrible thing that happened to you when you were twelve."

"Yeah!" Bruce says, deeply startled to have her say that, especially in a way where it sounds like she's talking about herself more than she is about whatever was going on in Bruce's head tonight. "You too? I mean -- were things that bad when you were twelve?" Somehow it's hard to picture Pepper having trauma or issues or really being younger than 20. And it's not like she had a father like Bruce's.

But Pepper gives him an odd look, like that should go without saying. "Are you kidding?" she says. "Being a twelve-year-old girl is a nightmare."

She actually does look like she's remembering some pretty unpleasant things, and Bruce suddenly pictures a little skinny awkward twelve-year-old Pepper, wonders if she fit in at school either. "Yeah?" he says, voice softening. He strokes down her side, slow, trying to be soothing.

Pepper shrugs. "Yeah, but it's not like I ever thought about it as an adult. But now...."

"Yeah," Bruce says, and sighs. It feels good, though, knowing that Pepper feels the same way, that maybe all three of them are having similar experiences, because now that they're talking about it he suspects that most of Tony's overreactions the past few days were probably his own childhood stuff. And it feels good being skin to skin like this, getting a quiet moment, knowing that Pepper's home now and things will be handled. She tucks her head under Bruce's chin, and he can feel her breathing evening out, her muscles relaxing too.

Somewhere in the distance, a door slams. "Mister Stark and Miss Armstrong have arrived home," JARVIS says. Oh, fuck, what time is it?

"Whoops," Pepper mutters, her eyes widening too, and they both jump to get themselves decent again, straightening their clothes, tucking everything back in.

They're pretty fast, but by the time they make it out to the living room, Tony and Sasha are already there. Tony blinks, obviously surprised to see Pepper. "Hey," he says. "What're you doing home?"

"Skipped the last session," Pepper says as Tony moves to kiss her hello. Behind Tony's back, Sasha rolls her eyes at the kissing, still looking sullen, so Bruce imagines Tony's been lecturing her the whole time they were out. But at least that means she's not disposed to pay that much attention to how Bruce and Pepper look, because now that Bruce is looking at Pepper's back, he's seeing how rumpled and creased she looks, like someone whose skirt was maybe, say, rucked up over her thighs ten minutes ago.

"You should've called," Tony says as he pulls back. "Bruce and I would've picked you up if we knew you were coming in early." His eyes move to Bruce, and maybe Bruce looks as rumpled as Pepper does, because Tony's eyes narrow slightly, like now that he's over the surprise of seeing Pepper he's noticing how they look and that they both came out of Bruce's room, and then Tony starts smirking pretty intensely. "What have you two been up to?" he says, trying to hide his smile and doing a really bad job of it.

"What's wrong with your hair?" Sasha says, looking at Bruce with an air of distaste.

"What?" Bruce says, hand automatically moving to smooth it. His stupid hair and how it never behaves itself.

"No, it's just, uh, kind of matted down in the back," Tony says, and he is really smirking like crazy.

"Oh, uh…" Bruce says, looking helplessly at Pepper.

But Pepper's way better at this than Bruce is, and she just ignores this whole line of questioning. "Did you get everything you needed?" she asks Tony and Sasha. "JARVIS told me you had to go to Stark Industries."

"Yeah," Sasha says, but still sullen, like everything about everyone in the room is entirely infuriating. "It didn't even take that long. I thought he was going to have to, like, dig it out of a salt mine or something."

She shoots a glare at Tony, like she thinks he was being such a drama queen, and Tony rolls his eyes. "Yeah, well, you're going to help me fix the thing later," he says. "We'll see how easy it seems then. And don't you have homework to do?"

Sasha makes an aggravated noise, like her life is harder than anyone's in the world, but she starts heading for her room.

When she's out of earshot, Tony grins at Bruce and says, "You dog, you," but then moves to hug Pepper again, looking pretty relieved to see her himself. "Thank God you're home," he says, leaning into her. "It's been awful. Raising this kid is way too much for just two people to handle."


	5. Chapter 5

One afternoon Tony's too involved in what he's working on to get away, so Bruce goes to pick Sasha up from school, standing against one of Tony's less-flashy cars as class lets out, hoping Sasha will see him in the pick-up lane. The sun's hot on his skin as he watches kids stream out of the school, pubescent and gawky and half of them yelling, and is so horribly grateful that he never has to go to middle school ever again.

He spots Sasha almost as soon as she gets out of the door. She's walking with her shoulders a little hunched and her head down, body curled inward like she's trying to take up the least amount of space she can, radiating unhappiness, and Bruce flashes back to being twelve himself with his mom dead, trying to be invisible, hating every kid in school and feeling like every inch of him presented a target. Watching Sasha like that makes something in his chest feel like it's twisting, and he wonders for a split second if they should just homeschool her until other kids her age become human again.

The steps of the school are crowded, kids standing in little groups talking to each other, and Sasha keeps her head down, trying to slip through without anyone noticing her. But it's too tight for that, and as she goes down the steps, she gets bumped by a kid stepping back without looking, his backpack pushing her off-balance, which makes her stumble into the kid on the other side of her.

The kid she stumbles into is good-looking and blond, wearing expensive clothes with his hair spiked up -- basically looking like the biggest douchebag Malibu pre-teen Bruce has ever seen. Bruce already reflexively hates him. The kid stumbles a little himself, then turns around and shoves Sasha. "What the crap, watch where you're going!" he says, loud enough for everyone around them to turn and look. Sasha goes bright red, hunching even more and trying to get out of the way. Bruce starts to move to open the car door so she can get in fast, but before he can, the boy says, "Fat dyke."

Bruce has had a lot of experience policing his own reactions over the years, and he's gotten to a place where he can always feel anger coming on and head it off before it escalates. These days it pretty much takes something life-threatening for him to lose control, and even then, he feels that it's about to happen before it does, there's a struggle before he finally lets go.

But the anger he feels when that kid says that comes on so fast and hard there's no warning at all. All Bruce has time to think is, _Oh no_ , and then everything's swallowed up in a green haze.

**

His head is killing him. His eyes are shut. He feels gritty and unpleasant all over, muscles aching, and fuck. He hates when he wakes up and doesn't know where he is. He hates when he's just been the other guy and something horrible probably -- oh _fuck_ , the last thing he remembers -- oh _FUCK_.

"Sasha!" he says, sitting up so fast he gets a little bit of a head rush, his voice coming out hoarse and rough and frantic. "Sasha?"

He's on a beach, which is surprising. A really isolated beach under some cliffs, and the tide is out, and from behind him, Pepper says, "She's fine, don't worry."

Bruce whips his head around, which hurts -- all his muscles always hurt afterwards, he always feels like just limping to the nearest bed and sleeping for 24 hours straight. He thinks it's from how much energy the transformation must take.

Pepper's sitting on a rock a few feet away from him, wearing her CEO clothes like she came straight from work, and holding her phone, which she's obviously been working on while she waited for him to wake up. It looks incongruous, her looking so pressed and together on the beach, seaweed strewn beside her, the rock she's sitting on rough and dirty. She's probably getting sand in her stockings. Bruce feels a rush of shame, her seeing him like this and knowing what he's just done, seeing how he's not fit for civilized company.

"Where is she?" Bruce says. He feels like he's going to throw up -- he -- it happened at Sasha's _school_. What has he been doing, sticking around here when he's a timebomb who could destroy a school in a heartbeat? Tony and Pepper must be so upset, suddenly seeing what can happen keeping Bruce around like this, how easily Sasha could've gotten hurt. Pepper's probably here to tell Bruce that he's not welcome back in their home.

"Tony took her out for ice cream," Pepper says. Though -- he knows she must be upset, but actually looking at her, she's awfully calm. Especially considering that Bruce probably murdered some children.

Oh God, the kid who said that to Sasha -- Christ, what did Bruce do? Bruce swallows and chokes out, "Did I --"

"No one was hurt," Pepper says quickly. "Everything's okay."

Bruce closes his eyes and takes a deep breath. Okay. Okay. He puts a hand up to rub his forehead, and when he opens his eyes again, Pepper is smiling at him, but still not like anything too weird has happened, just the standard kind of compassion that you'd get from her if you woke up mildly hungover. Bruce doesn't get it. "What happened?" he says. He notices some of his clothes are folded neatly on the sand next to him, and he starts moving to put some pants on. Pepper came prepared. He wonders who called her out of work, if it was the cops or SHIELD or what.

"Well," Pepper says. "From what I understand, a…" she pauses, her mouth twisting a little with distaste, as though she's trying to think of the right word. "Young man," she finally says, clearly reining herself in, "called Sasha... a name in front of you." The pause suggests that she heard what the name was, but doesn't want to repeat it. "When you, quite rightly, got angry, you turned into the Hulk, who grabbed Sasha in one hand -- she says like King Kong -- and ran off with her. You ended up here."

"Where's here?" Bruce says, looking around. He's not getting any clues -- there are no signs of civilization.

"About fifty miles up the coast from Sasha's school," Pepper says, sounding like she finds it impressive that the Hulk ran that far. And here Bruce is just happy they're still in California. "When the Hulk finally went to sleep, Sasha called Tony on her cell phone and told him you were on a beach, and then Tony flew up and down until he found you. And then called me to come down and meet you all."

"God," Bruce says. He rubs his forehead again, even though it makes his arm hurt to lift it. His muscles feel completely wrung out, and he feels sandy and sticky and exhausted, a heavy lump of humiliation in his stomach. "Did I... I mean, did I scare her?"

Pepper almost laughs. "No," she says. "I've never seen her that excited, actually. She must have used the word 'awesome,' about thirty times. Though she thinks you may have scared the bully."

"God," Bruce says again, back to feeling like he's going to throw up.

"I mean, she _hopes_ you may have scared the bully," Pepper says. "Don't look like that."

Bruce tries to stop looking like that, attempting a smile at her, but he doesn't think it really works. He starts putting on the button-down shirt Pepper brought him, even though the effort feels overwhelming. Moving his arms into the sleeves. Starting to button it up. Though at least it means he has an excuse to look away. "What about," he says. "Um. Property damage?" God. He's going to get sued, at the very least. If the government hasn't already sent some troops out to track him down. Though he guesses regardless, Tony and Pepper are going to ask him to leave, so he'll probably be out of the country before he can get too many other consequences. Not that that's not enough of a consequence. He feels sick.

But there's a pause and then Pepper says, "Oh," like it hadn't occurred to her to wonder about that. "No, I don't think there was any. I think you just ran."

"Really," Bruce says, trying not to roll his eyes. He wishes Pepper wouldn't lie to him. "I didn't, uh, smash anything."

"Well," Pepper says, and looks over at a bunch of gravel about twenty feet away from them. "Sasha said that used to be a boulder. But after he got that out of his system, it sounds like he and Sasha just went in the ocean and built part of a sandcastle?"

That would explain why Bruce feels so crusty right now, if it's all dried salt. But that all sounds so implausible.

When he looks at her dubiously, Pepper shrugs. "Sasha said you recognized her," she says. "The Hulk likes her, apparently. She was pretty proud of that."

Bruce focuses on buttoning his shirt the rest of the way up. The sun is in his eyes, the glare of it making his headache worse. He wishes he were far away from here. He wishes Pepper weren't being so nice to him, that she'd just tell him it's time for him to move on, away from their kid, that she wouldn't make him wait like this for the other shoe to drop.

"Hey," Pepper says. "Bruce." She gets up and comes over to him, tentatively reaching out to stroke his hair, her hand ending up on the nape of his neck. "You okay?"

Bruce shrugs, fumbling with the last button on his shirt. He knew something like this was inevitable, but he's gone so long without an incident. He never wanted Sasha to see him like that, to know he's a monster in that visceral way. And then -- ugh, she probably saw him naked afterwards. Not that, you know, most of the western world hasn't, but it's a little different in person. And fucked up, great, he's fucking the kid up in so many ways. Unsurprisingly. He should have left on his own weeks ago, as soon as Sasha arrived, not indulged this stupid fantasy where he could live with them and nothing bad would happen, where he wouldn't eventually blow it.

"Everything's okay," Pepper says, her voice low and quiet. She tugs a little bit on the short hairs at the back of his skull, and when Bruce still doesn’t look at her, she leans in and kisses him. Bruce wishes she wouldn't. It's making his throat feel like it's closing up.

"I know," he says, once he feels like he can. He makes himself look at her, though when he does she's looking at him with so much empathy in her eyes that he has to look away again, forcing a smile. "I'm fine."

She cups his cheek with her hand, stroking his skin with her thumb, and then finally steps back. "Good," she says, even though she's looking at him like she knows he's lying. "You ready to go pick up Tony and Sasha?"

"Oh," Bruce says. He didn't realize they only had one car, though that makes sense since Pepper said Tony flew down here in the suit. He was hoping he wouldn't have to see them until he'd pulled himself back together more. He doesn't know if he can face them yet, stand to see the disgust and fear in their faces that he knows is coming. But there's no point postponing it, really. "I guess."

**

When they walk into Baskin Robbins, Tony and Sasha are at one of the booths, Tony facing the door and Sasha across from him. Tony's got his arm stretched along the back of the booth, looking casual and relaxed, and it actually looks like Sasha's chattering away to him. Bruce thinks he hears her giggle? Which is so weird -- Sasha still hardly ever talks to Tony, much less acts cheerful in front of him, and Tony really should look more tense than he does, since his kid almost got killed today.

When Tony sees Bruce and Pepper come in, his mouth twitches and he nods at them to Sasha, saying something to her, and then Sasha's looking around, her face lighting up when she sees them. To Bruce's complete and utter shock, she gets up and runs over to fling her arms around Bruce, the most enthusiastic hug Bruce has really ever received. It's be surprising to get a hug like that from anyone after they just saw him as an uncontrollable monster, but Sasha hardly ever touches any of them, even Bruce, who's her favorite, so it's extra startling. This is not the reaction Bruce was expecting.

"Oh," he says. "Hey." Suddenly he realizes he's not even hugging her back, and brings his arms up to wrap around her. She's small and soft and whole, unhurt, and her head is against his chest, and oh God, she's really okay, he really didn't hurt her. For a second Bruce's eyes sting and he has to swallow and breathe deep to get himself under control.

When she finally pulls back, she actually looks a little shy, like she embarrassed herself by hugging him so hard and for so long. "Hey," he says again, putting his hand on her shoulder, still hardly believing that she's all right. "You okay? You didn't get hurt, did you?"

"No!" she says, her eyes lighting up again. "Of course not, you saved me!"

Bruce looks helplessly at Pepper, who's smiling at him, and she touches his arm lightly as she goes up to the counter to order. So apparently she and Bruce are getting ice cream too. "I'm, uh, not sure you needed to be saved quite in that way," Bruce says as they head over to the booth where Tony's still sitting. He doesn't know how to react -- it is so far from how he thought they'd treat him he doesn't know what to do with it.

"Hey," Tony says, smiling at him with half his mouth, like he's teasing him. "There's the hero."

"I --" Bruce says. He doesn't quite know what to say to that, why Tony would be messing with him when he's about to kick him out of the house. Tony isn't usually needlessly cruel in quite that way. Bruce swallows and slumps into the booth, still feeling like shit in every possible way.

"Oh my God," Sasha says excitedly, sliding into the booth next to him. "That was so cool, you're so awesome! I didn't know the Hulk would be like that, that was amazing!"

Bruce closes his eyes for a second. His head aches. "That was dangerous," he says. "I'm sorry I -- I wish I hadn't --"

"Don't mind him," Tony says, taking a bite of his ice cream. "He's a real wet blanket about it."

Bruce blinks at Tony, feeling wary -- but Tony's probably just acting normal for Sasha, so she doesn't have to witness the horrible conversation they're going to have later about how Bruce could've murdered his kid.

"Why?" Sasha says. "It wasn't dangerous, it was amazing! He didn't hurt anybody!"

"I know," Tony says, at the same time as Bruce says, "We got lucky." Tony flicks a glance at him, but now that he's sitting down, exhaustion is flooding over Bruce again, even through his worry. He leans his head on his hand. Staying upright feels like so much work.

"You tired, pal?" Tony says. He's using his normal flip tone, but his eyes are sharp and appraising, sizing Bruce up.

Bruce shrugs. He wishes they were home -- he means, at Tony's house. Anywhere he could be alone. Why are they still at Baskin Robbins, having to act like everything hasn't fallen apart?

"Does being the Hulk tire you out?" Sasha asks, eyes wide and curious. "That makes sense, you ran really, really fast."

She's so clearly still hyped up and thrilled about Bruce running off with her. It'd be cute if Bruce wasn't feeling so sick about the whole thing. He'd rather do anything than talk about it. "Yeah, I'm always pretty wiped afterwards," he says, suppressing a yawn and hoping she loses interest.

"Have you taken blood samples after?" Tony says, looking curious. "I'm assuming the transformation has cellular effects."

"Yeah," Bruce says, wondering if he could put his head down on the table or if that would be rude. "The mitochondria are usually pretty depleted."

Pepper puts a giant bowl of mint chocolate chip down in front of Bruce. It's his favorite flavor, though he can't think when he's ever had ice cream with Pepper or told her that. She slides into Tony's side of the booth with a much, much smaller bowl of orange sherbet in front of her.

"Wow," Sasha says, looking at the massive amount of ice cream in front of Bruce. "Is Bruce going to eat all that?"

"Bruce needs nutrients," Pepper says. She leans into Tony a little, his arm still along the back of the booth. Under the table, Bruce feels someone's foot rest on his. He's not sure if it's Tony or Pepper's, and he doesn’t have the energy to look. They are being so weird right now.

"Yeah, kid," Tony says. "The next time you suck carbon from the air into your cells to become a twenty foot high invincible creature, you'll be able to eat all that too."

"Okay!" Sasha says, and looks hopefully at Bruce like he has the serum handy and like if he did he would ever, ever give it to anyone else.

"Yeah, ice cream and murder and being hunted by the military," Bruce says. "It's a great life." He takes a big bite of ice cream and realizes that he's ravenous. He could really destroy a steak right now.

"Total wet blanket," Tony says, leaning back in his seat like Bruce is proving him right.

Sasha actually giggles, grinning at Tony like they're both in on a joke together. Bruce sees Pepper blink in shock for a split second before she gets her professional face back on to act like everything's normal and Tony and Sasha haven't had some kind of bizarre breakthrough in their relationship. Bruce doesn't know what to do with anything and he's too tired to keep caring.

A couple of teenage boys walk by their table and do a double-take. They're probably around 18, wearing beanie caps and dirty jeans, and they look like assholes. "Hey, aren't you Tony Stark?" one of them says, boggling at Tony.

"Nope," Tony says, waving them away with the obvious expectation they will obey his every whim that only comes with being Tony Stark. "Get lost."

"Nah, bro, you are!" another one says. "You're Iron Man, dude!"

"I'm afraid you're mistaken," Tony says in that flat, glib way he has, "and I'm with my family, so." He makes a shooing motion with his hand, and after they give him some looks that make it clear they don't believe him, the teenagers keep walking.

Family. Pepper's smiling at Tony, looking pleased, and Sasha's looking at him like she thinks Tony's being so cool right now, but Bruce just feels sad, sitting here on the outside, the last time he'll probably ever be at a table with the three of them. For a second he flashes to Betty and those three might-have-been children of his, the family he could've had, who would never have had to worry he would turn into a murderous monster, and he wishes he were asleep already, asleep and far away.


	6. Chapter 6

When they get back to the house, nobody seems like they're going to bite the bullet and have the uncomfortable conversation with Bruce that he knows is coming, so after a few minutes of loitering around waiting for it, Bruce gives up and heads straight for bed. He sleeps for eleven hours straight, waking up at four in the morning, confused about where he is. He's still sticky from the salt water and he's pretty sure he's still got sand in his chest hair, and he's starving and tired and his face is itchy from his beard coming in.

He gets up and goes to the kitchen, trying to see what there is to eat, and finds the fridge newly packed with everything you could think of, including a bunch of steaks. He must need protein -- his mouth is already watering, and he wonders if Pepper read that in his file too, what kind of stuff he tends to eat afterwards. He should really look his file over one of these days, see if they've got his favorite flavor of ice cream in there like he now suspects, but he thinks it's probably for the best that he not know everything they have on him. And he actively tries to avoid seeing what other people write about him anyway.

The house is quiet as he tosses a couple of the steaks into a frying pan, getting them browning, his stomach rumbling as they start to smell delicious. After sleeping so much he should feel better than he did before, but he still feels worn down and depressed. Bad day. Bad way to end this stage of his life, end this relationship, all of it his own fault.

He's halfway through the first steak, sitting at the kitchen island, when Pepper comes in. She looks bleary in her pajamas, hair mussed, feet bare, wearing the baggy, unsexy sweats she sleeps in that Bruce always finds so endearing. Bruce tries to memorize the way she looks right now, the little hole at the shoulder of the t-shirt, her hair tucked behind her ears, a crease on her face from the pillowcase. How this is probably the last time he'll see her like this. "Hey," she says, her voice rough from sleep. She rubs her forehead and yawns a little. "Have you been up long? I was going to make those for you, you shouldn't have to cook after all that."

Bruce is confused for a second, until he realizes that she means someone should be taking care of him after he Hulked out. That… is sweet. And foreign. "Oh," he says. "It's fine, I don't mind."

Pepper leans against the counter next to him and picks a raspberry off his plate, popping it into her mouth. She looks tired. "Do you normally get up this early?" he asks her. It's 4:30 in the morning; he knows Pepper gets a lot done, but that still seems excessive. He didn't think he'd have to see anybody, being up at this time -- there's a lump of dread in his stomach now, knowing this could be the moment that Pepper's going to talk to him about how he should pack his things.

"No," she says. "I just smelled the steak and figured you had woken up." She looks at Bruce for a long moment, appraising in a motherly kind of way. It makes Bruce feel a little self-conscious. He takes another bite of steak. "You okay?" Pepper says finally.

He has been trying very hard not to think about how badly everything could have gone today, how incredibly lucky he got that he didn't murder a child. He is still too tired to think about it. But of course he's not okay. He shrugs at her, looking away.

Pepper runs her hand over his hair, surprising him, her hand gentle. He has to repress the urge to lean into it, and his throat suddenly feels tight. "All right," she says quietly. "Just, let's talk about it, when you're ready to talk. Don't just take off in the middle of the night or anything."

Bruce blinks and looks at her. Wouldn't it make it easier on everybody if he left without them having to have an awkward conversation with him about it? He probably should have done that already -- he would have, if he weren't so exhausted and hungry and if he had a place to go. "Um, okay," he says, feeling a little wary, not understanding why she's being like this.

She nods, still touching him, her hand resting on the back of his neck. Her eyes look sad. "Good," she says.

**

He goes back to bed and sleeps for four more hours, wakes up, uses the bathroom, and then sleeps two hours more. This time he manages to drag himself to the shower, rinse off the sand and the gunk, all the residual scuzziness he feels after he's been the other guy.

When he finally leaves his room, clean, dressed but in his most comfortable clothes, Tony is sprawled on the couch watching TV, which is unusual for 11 in the morning. "Hey," Tony says, not moving from his sprawl except to crane his head to see Bruce. "You're up."

"What're you doing here?" Bruce says, feeling wary but sprawling onto the couch himself. His muscles feel better, not so limp, but they're still tired, not wanting to do much, and everything in his life is still terrible.

Tony shrugs. "Relaxing," he says. It's pretty obvious that Tony is in fact here to finally, _finally_ have a serious talk with Bruce about almost killing his child, but whatever, if he's not going to admit it. "How'd you sleep, you feel better?"

Bruce nods, and then notices that the TV's on CNN, which is showing some grainy footage of what he's pretty sure is the Hulk. The Hulk running away from what he's pretty sure is Sasha's school. He reaches for the remote and turns the sound up.

"... of Defense assured in a statement that the Hulk averted a clear and present threat to national security, but had no comment on the precise nature of the threat. Speculation has been running rampant in social media that another alien race may have..."

"Yeah, don't worry," Tony says over the reporter. "SHIELD has been taking care of the media angle. God forbid the Avengers get any bad press."

"National security?" Bruce says. He feels very, very tired, humiliation buzzing in his stomach as he imagines SHIELD executives debating how to handle the fact that Bruce can't keep his temper with a little boy.

"Not the most creative lie, I admit," Tony says. He looks amused more than anything else at the news coverage, but underneath he's watching Bruce with sharp, canny eyes, and Bruce is getting tired of this strange avoiding of the subject -- he's sick of waiting for Tony to start this conversation.

Bruce sighs. "Don't you have something you want to say?" he says, a little more sharply than he intends.

But Tony just looks like he doesn't know what Bruce is talking about. "Not really," he says, clearly not at all bothered by Bruce's tone. He picks up the remote and starts flipping channels like he's just gotten bored with the news. "Sasha's school called to thank you, by the way," he says. "You know, for saving them and all." Tony's smirking.

"You're kidding," Bruce says. Jesus Christ. Though he guesses that's better than the lawsuit he was originally anticipating from Sasha's school. He leans his head back against the couch cushions.

On the TV, Nick Fury's face suddenly comes up as the screen alerts them that a call from him is coming in. The picture Tony has set as his default is Fury at his frowniest. "Jarvis, I said no calls," Tony says irritably, but the picture doesn't go away and the phone just rings louder.

"I'm afraid my protocols are being overridden again, sir," Jarvis says.

"Goddammit, I thought I patched that breach," Tony says, swinging his legs off the couch so he can sit up, starting to type furiously into his tablet, code starting to scroll across the screen.

Meanwhile, Fury's actual living face comes up on the TV, frowning nearly as much as Tony's picture of him. "Dr. Banner," he says.

"You know, it's rude to keep hacking into my network," Tony says irritably, still typing. "And you wonder why people don't trust you. _Boundaries_."

"If you took my calls when I needed you to, I wouldn't have to hack in," Fury says. "Dr. Banner needs to come down to SHIELD headquarters to be debriefed."

"No, he doesn't," Tony says.

"He does," Fury says. "We took care of the media, but we need a full account of what exactly happened --"

"Bruce isn't interested," Tony says.

"It's not about if he's in--" Fury starts, but he's interrupted.

"Nick, hi," Pepper says from behind them, her voice warm and professional, a far cry from Tony's tetchy little-boy protests. Bruce is surprised she's here, but when he turns, she's wearing her work clothes, like she just came home on her lunch hour. "How are you?"

"Fine, thank you," Fury says, a little irritable but forced into being polite. "And you?"

"I'm very well, thanks," Pepper says.

"I was just telling Stark and Banner that we need to debrief. SHIELD needs to know exactly what happened during the incident and what the nature of the enemy was. We've been covering with the media, but without more information --"

"Of course," Pepper says, still warm but with her tone keeping Fury at a professional arms-length, clear he's not getting to her at all with his irritability.

"Pepper," Tony mutters, giving her a look like, what the fuck are you doing.

But Pepper ignores him. "Let's put something on the books, shall we? I'm sure we can take a look at Bruce's schedule and find a time we can squeeze you in next week."

Oh. Bruce suddenly realizes that Pepper is actually working to get him out of this, just much more effectively than Tony was.

"Next week?!" Fury says. "That's unacceptable. We need damage control now."

"I assure you, there's no current threat," Pepper says. "And Bruce is very busy. But maybe I can try to get something a little sooner than that." She says this like she's doing Fury an enormous favor, pulling strings, as though Bruce has a very tight schedule of corporate meetings to attend to.

"I see," Fury says.

"Thanks so much for calling," Pepper says. "We'll be in touch." And with that, she hangs the phone up. It's like a magic trick.

As Pepper comes around to sit on the couch beside Bruce, Tony finishes typing a few more words into his code, then hits a button with quite a bit of force. "There," he says. "And that should keep SHIELD out for at least awhile longer."

Bruce closes his eyes, wanting to laugh and cry all at once, the two of them working in tandem like that, especially to protect Bruce after what he just did. "Thanks for the cover," he says after a second, opening his eyes again. "That should buy me some time to at least get out of the country."

He expects Tony and Pepper to nod in agreement, since clearly that's what they were doing, but instead they both look confused. "Cover?" Pepper says.

"You're leaving the country?" Tony says, looking distressed. "Why?"

Bruce wants to roll his eyes at them, and he feels a little anger stirring -- just, let's be real, all this coyness from them isn't helping anybody. He takes a deep breath to get it under control, settle the other guy down. "You're about to ask me to leave," he says once he's calm again. "And it's safer for me out of the States."

But now Tony and Pepper look even more confused and even Pepper's starting to look upset. "We're about to ask you to leave?" Pepper says, looking over at Tony a little accusingly. "What did you say to him?"

But Tony looks just as confused as she does. "I didn't say anything!" he says. "Did you tell him --"

"No!" Pepper says.

They both turn to stare at Bruce, and again, this is not going down exactly like he expected. He sighs. "Come on," he says. "I almost killed your kid today."

"No, you didn't," Tony says, like he's shocked Bruce would say that. "The Hulk loves her. She wasn't in danger."

Bruce wishes he were in a position to lose his temper, because they are being so obtuse and infuriating right now. "Yes, she was," he says, working on keeping the anger roiling in his stomach at a manageable level. "And anyway, if she wasn't, the other kids at her school sure were."

Tony and Pepper exchange a glance. "Not really," Pepper says.

"Yeah," Tony says. "You didn't hurt anybody. You just scared one little asshole who deserved it. If I'd been there and heard him say that, I probably would've yelled at him badly enough to scare him at least that much."

"Me too," Pepper says, with more feeling than Bruce is expecting.

Bruce's fists are clenching in frustration and he can't even force himself to unclench them. "Well, maybe _you_ don't care if I put your kid's life at risk, but I actually do," Bruce says.

"You're not putting her life at risk," Tony insists, stupid and confident, little rich boy nothing really bad has ever happened to.

"I am," Bruce says. "I know she was okay this time, but do you know how fragile human beings are? Their heads pop like grapes. The other guy wouldn't even have to want to hurt her -- if he got just a little bit overexcited with her --"

Tony rolls his eyes and leans forward, putting his elbows on his knees with his eyes fixed on Bruce. "You're putting people's lives at risk wherever you are, if you want to think about it like that," he says. "Kolkata's one of the most densely populated places on earth. Are the lives of the kids there worth less than Sasha's?"

Bruce freezes, feeling sick. He knows that as well as anybody, that he's putting lives at risk by just existing anywhere in the world. But Tony doesn't understand…

"Yeah," Tony says at Bruce's silence. "So why can't you live with people you care about?"

Pepper shifts a little, but when Bruce glances over at her she looks like she doesn't disagree, looking at Bruce almost as intensely as Tony is.

Bruce closes his eyes, taking a deep breath through his nose, trying desperately to stay calm. After a second he says, "You think I'd lose my temper like that at just any kid getting picked on?" He opens his eyes and looks at Tony, who hesitates. "It's because I care about her that it's worse for me to be here," he says. "The more I care about people the more dangerous I am. That's why I should have left a long time ago."

People are so stupid -- everyone thinks that love is such a good, positive, harmless thing, that it's all holding hands and singing Kumbaya, that there's no dark side to it. Tony and Pepper think love is tame and domesticated and safe, that nothing bad ever comes out of it. But Bruce's father loved him. People don't usually realize that, but he did. There's nothing in the world more dangerous than love.

Tony and Pepper exchange a look that Bruce can't quite read and there's a long second of silence. Finally Tony says, "That's a fucked up way to think."

Bruce shrugs. "It's true," he says.

Tony glances at Pepper again, hesitating. Then Pepper says, "What about how you being here protects Sasha?"

Bruce has to work hard not to roll his eyes -- in what universe is he more a protection than a threat? But when he shifts, Pepper says, "I'm serious. What do you think would happen if you were here and someone tried to kidnap her? I don't think that would go very well for them, based on what happened today."

Bruce snorts. "Kidnap her," he says, because that sounds like a soap opera plot, not something that happens to real people. But then he remembers that Tony himself was kidnapped not that many years ago, that Tony's a billionaire whose kid might very well be a target, and goes still. Shit, he's an asshole. Tony's looking down at his hands. "Oh," Bruce says after a second. 

"Why do you think Tony's beefed up security around here so much the last couple of months?" Pepper says.

Tony's still not looking at either of them. "You're really worried about that happening to Sasha?" Bruce says. He didn't -- he hadn't realized.

After a second Tony shrugs. "Rich kid hazard," he says, his voice trying to be casual but not quite pulling it off. "If nobody's tries to kidnap you, your dad isn't worth enough."

Bruce wants to say he's sorry, to ask if Tony's okay, but it looks pretty strongly like Tony doesn't want to talk about it and he's not thrilled that Pepper brought it up. "So yeah," Tony says, leaning back, his body language trying hard to be relaxed. "Sure, it makes me feel better that you're here."

Even so, Bruce still feels dubious. "Okay, but wouldn't it be better to have someone here who wouldn't accidentally crush your kid to death trying to save her? I mean, like Steve."

Tony rolls his eyes. "Steve's not invincible," he says. "Also I can't stand Steve."

Bruce rubs his forehead, not knowing what to say. There's a pause.

"I know you think you can't control it with us," Pepper says gently into the silence. "But you're just not used to being around people you care about."

"That's true," Tony says, sitting up straighter. "You only practiced controlling it for yourself. But you got really good at that, I don't see why you can't get good at keeping your temper when things threaten Sasha too."

Tony and Pepper are both looking at him so hopefully -- and God, he doesn't want to leave either, even if he knows they're nuts to want him to stay. He feels his shoulders slump, for a second wildly feeling on the verge of tears from their pleading faces, how no one's ever wanted him to stay this much.

Sooner or later they'll come to their senses, figure out that the other guy isn't something you can change, but maybe -- well, he doesn't need to hurt their feelings by insisting on leaving now, when he doesn't even want to anyway.

Finally he shrugs at them, swallowing. "You know you're crazy, right?" he says, giving in.

Tony grins. "Like a fox," he says.

"Have you eaten lunch yet?" Pepper says, getting out her phone. "Let me order something in, we have to keep your strength up. Pizza or Indian?"

**

At dinner that night Sasha's incredibly animated, which is almost disconcerting, seeing her like that at a table where she usually acts like she's posing to take a stock photo to illustrate 'sullen teen.'

"Did you really save the school from aliens?" she asks Bruce excitedly.

Bruce stares at her. Tony's smirking and looking like he's trying not to, and even Pepper is smiling down at her plate. "You were _there,_ " Bruce says. "Why are you listening to the media -- did you _see_ any aliens?"

"Well, no," Sasha says. "But you grabbed me really fast, maybe it was too fast to see them! Everyone at school says it was aliens."

Bruce is even more flabbergasted. "How can -- didn't that kid who called you the name…"

"Chad," Sasha supplies.

"Ugh," Tony says, and yeah, of course that kid is named Chad.

"Yeah, didn't Chad tell them what happened?"

Sasha's eyes get wide and defensive. "Chad's the one telling everyone he saw the aliens!" she says. "He says that they were about to blow up the school but then you destroyed them!"

Oh, for crying out loud. Bruce closes his eyes for a second, rubbing between his eyebrows where he can feel a headache coming on. "Somehow I don't get the sense Chad is the most trustworthy person in the world," he finally says. Sasha is looking at him with wide, dark eyes like he's her hero. He sighs. "You saw what happened," he says. "I lost my temper because Chad called you a name. It wasn't heroic. I'm just a grown man who got angry at a child."

That should make Sasha disappointed, finally make her see what really happened, who Bruce really is, and he expects to see her face fall. But she says, "Oh," and then for some reason she's smiling down at her plate to herself.

When Bruce looks helplessly at Tony, he catches Tony and Pepper exchanging a glance with the same half-hidden smiles on their faces. "What are you smiling about?" he says to them, a little more sharply than he means to.

Tony rolls his eyes. "Oh, for fuck's sake," he says. "We all think it's sweet, Bruce. I know it's hard, but you're just going to have to figure out how to deal with that."


	7. Chapter 7

Bruce is pretty worried about what the whole humiliating Hulk incident is going to do to Sasha's social standing at school, since Sasha's been living with them for three months and still doesn't have any friends. Bruce isn't sure she's ever said two words to any of the other kids, at least judging from how she is walking out of the school building. He and Pepper talk about it a little sometimes, if they could do anything to help, if maybe she should do some kind of afterschool activity for something she's interested in, if that would help her find kids who are more on her wavelength. Tony pretends he's not worried about it at all, but he gets agitated when Bruce and Pepper talk about it, insisting that friends aren't important. He didn't have friends when he was 12 either, and he turned out okay, he says.

When he said that the first time, Pepper looked at Bruce like she's not sure Tony turned out entirely okay, but she wisely let it drop. After that, they mostly talk about it when Tony's not in the room.

So yeah. Bruce transforming into the Hulk in front of everyone she knows is not exactly going to make her less of a freak at school -- she was mortified enough just by Tony existing, and this is ten times worse. He honestly wouldn't be surprised if she didn't even want to go back to school after, but weirdly she doesn't put up a fuss about it, like it's not even on her radar. So… that's good, he guesses. Even if it's still strange that everyone's acting so normal about the incident.

Then that Friday at dinner, Sasha says casually, "Can I go to the movies tonight?"

Her talking at dinner is a little surprising, but Tony takes it in stride. "Sure, I'm not doing anything," he says. "What do you want to see?"

"Um," Sasha says. "No. I, uh, I meant, could I go with people from school."

Tony boggles. Even Pepper's mouth has fallen a little open. Bruce jumps in to try to be nonchalant before Tony can express his shock. "Oh," Bruce says, trying to sound as casual as Sasha does. "That sounds fun. Who's going?"

Sasha shrugs, looking like she's going to die of embarrassment if anybody makes a big deal of this. "Just some people."

"Sure, you can go!" Tony says. He sounds kind of thrilled. "Do you need a ride? I could take you. We could pick up your friends if they need rides. Do you need money?" He starts fumbling for his wallet before he realizes that he doesn't carry one. "Pepper, do you have money? Give her a fifty. Is fifty dollars enough?"

Sasha looks both mortified and a tiny bit amused. "I don't know," she says, and looks a tiny bit mischievous. "What if we want to get snacks?"

Pepper coughs a little, looking like she's trying hard not to laugh. Tony clearly doesn't get it at all. "Oh, yeah, sure, how about a hundred?"

Bruce shakes his head at Sasha. Incorrigible kid. "Tony, fifty dollars is more than enough for the movie and snacks. For all of them."

"Oh," Tony says, and narrows his eyes at Sasha. "Were you playing me?" he says. "You know I never pay for things."

Sasha smirks at him. "So I can have the fifty?" she says.

Tony looks at Bruce, who shrugs at him, even though it's still a ridiculous amount for a twelve-year-old. But hey, her dad's a billionaire, so sure, why not. "Okay, sure," Tony says. Pepper has already gotten up to get her purse.

Sasha is still kind of smirking. "Don't you want to know what movie we're going to see?" she says, like she thinks that in his enthusiasm Tony is not exactly being a normal parent at the moment, not asking any questions about ratings and whether things are appropriate. "It's Fifty Shades of Grey."

Tony's eyes almost bug out, but then he blinks. "Are you messing with me again?" he says. Sasha grins at him, looking like the biggest chip off the old block right now -- Bruce has seen that smartass expression on Tony's face a thousand times. "Come on," Tony says to her. "You know I can only dish it out."

It turns out the movie that Sasha is going to see is rated PG, and her friends are named Rachel Huang and Alex Davis, and yes, Tony can call both their parents to make sure it's okay, even though that last part makes Sasha look like she wants to die. "Rachel's mom is giving us a ride there," Sasha says. "But um… actually, could Bruce pick us up?" She looks at Bruce hopefully.

"Oh," Bruce says, a little surprised. He glances at Tony, who looks a little hurt. "Um, sure. Or Tony and I both can."

Bruce is kind of desperately curious to see what Sasha's friends look like, and Tony and Pepper must be too, at least judging by how they all end up hovering near the door around the time she's supposed to be picked up. But to everyone's disappointment, the kids stay in the minivan and Sasha goes running out the door before they can even get a glimpse of anybody through windows.

They don't get a look at them until Tony and Bruce go to pick them up a few hours later, Sasha and her friends already out on the steps of the theater by the time they pull up. It's immediately obvious that Sasha has finally found the other weirdos at her school. The girl she's standing with is tall, at least a head taller than both Sasha and the boy they're with, with a skinny beanpole frame. She's got straight flat hair that looks a little greasy, parted exactly down the middle, and glasses that are too big for her face. The boy, on the other hand, is round and pudgy with acne and ash blond hair that's so light it makes him look washed out. He's wearing a t-shirt that Bruce is pretty sure has some kind of math joke on it. ( _The square root of -1 heart math_ , Bruce reads when the kids get closer. Cute.) Bruce immediately likes both kids enormously.

"There's a boy," Tony mutters through gritted teeth as the kids start walking towards the car. "Why is there a boy? She didn't say she was friends with a boy, since when is Alex a boy's name?"

"Uh, since always?" Bruce says, looking at him, sure that Tony must be joking, because that is about the most non-threatening boy that Bruce has ever seen. But Tony looks stressed and furious, so, great. "He looks harmless," Bruce says.

"No boys are harmless," Tony says, but then Sasha's opening the car door and he manages to get it together enough to smile at her. "Hey, kiddo," he says. "You have a good time?"

"Yeah," Sasha says, scooting into the middle seat as her friends get in the car too.

"Hi," Tony says, mostly to the boy, looking in the rearview mirror. "I'm Mr. Stark. That's Dr. Banner."

"Hi," the kids say, though the boy has caught Tony's look and he looks a little unsure of himself for a second. But then excitement seems to take over, and he leans forward. "You're the Hulk, right?" he says to Bruce. "You were at our school!"

"Oh," Bruce says, clearing his throat and shifting in his seat a little. "Um, yeah. You heard about that, huh?"

"I saw it!" the girl -- Rachel -- says, leaning forward, at least as excited as Alex is. "It was amazing! Did you really save the school from aliens?"

"Um," Bruce says, shifting again. Out of the corner of his eye he can see Tony smirking, but luckily Alex interrupts before Bruce has to think of what the hell to say to that. "Duh," Alex says. "He can't say because of national security."

"Yeah, but everybody knows it was aliens," Rachel says.

Bruce glances back at Sasha as Rachel and Alex start to bicker about whether it was aliens or a super villain, hoping Sasha isn't as embarrassed as Bruce is right now. But Sasha actually just looks pleased, like she wanted to show Bruce off, and Bruce wonders if that's why she specifically wanted him to be the one to pick her up.

Basically the whole ride to Rachel's house, all they talk about is the Hulk. It's to the degree that about halfway there Tony jumps in to point out that he's Iron Man, but the kids are more or less completely uninterested. It's the first time that Bruce has ever been more popular than Tony. He doesn't care for it. He thinks maybe it'll die down once they drop Rachel off, but Alex keeps up a steady stream of gushing and questions.

When they get to Alex's house, Alex doesn't even seem ready to get out of the car yet. He opens the door reluctantly, still in the middle of a question, and when Bruce finishes answering him, Alex sighs happily. "Sasha's so lucky. I wish _my_ dad was the Hulk," he says. Then, "Bye, Sasha! See you Monday!" And he shuts the door with a bang, leaving Bruce feeling stunned.

He looks at Tony, who looks at least as gobsmacked as Bruce, with some hurt overlaying it. Tony hasn't put the car back into gear, which, they do have to watch to make sure Alex gets in the house all right, but there he goes, front door shutting behind him, and Tony still hasn't moved.

Bruce turns to look at Sasha, who is bright red and squirming unhappily, not meeting his eyes. "Did you tell them I was your dad instead of Tony?" Bruce says, sounding as flabbergasted as he feels.

"No," Sasha says uncomfortably. "I -- they know Tony's my dad."

Wait -- then -- what? Bruce and Tony both stare at her. She shrugs, face redder than Bruce has ever seen it, looking at the floor. "I, uh, I told them you're my stepdad," she says all in a rush.

Wait, like -- like, married to Tony, stepdad? "I, uh," Bruce starts at the same time as Tony says, "You told them _what_?"

Sasha squirms a little lower in her seat and shrugs, still looking mortified. "I don't know," she mumbles. "It was easier than trying to explain what he is."

Tony glances at Bruce, looking as wary as Bruce feels. What does _that_ mean? Sasha doesn't know they're all sleeping together, right? After a second Tony says, "What do you mean by that?"

Sasha looks at them then, and is it Bruce's imagination, or does she look a little challenging? "You know," Sasha says. Then, after a second, "Explaining that he's my dad's roommate."

Okay, honestly, that does sound sketchy now that Bruce hears it. Practically gayer than just saying Bruce is married to Tony. "Uh," Tony says, and he looks like he hears it too and that he thinks it's a little funny. "You can always say 'family friend'."

Sasha shrugs, slumping lower in her seat. "Okay," she says, but she sounds like she's definitely not going to correct her friends. Bruce can't believe she told them that Bruce was her dad, like that's something desirable. And it sure seems like her friends thought it was the coolest thing they'd ever heard. That is… unexpected. "Can we go already?" Sasha says, and Bruce realizes with a start that they're still sitting outside Alex's house.

"Yep," Tony says, and they drive off.

**

Back at home, Sasha heads straight for her room, and Bruce and Tony go to the living room, where Pepper is sitting on her laptop with CNN on the TV. She mutes the TV when she sees at them, smiling until she sees their faces. "Everything okay?" she says.

Bruce flops onto the couch with a little bit of a groan. Tony runs his hand through his hair. "Well, Sasha told everyone that Bruce is her dad," he says. His feelings are definitely hurt. Bruce feels bad but also, how on earth is that even possible? He would definitely rather have Tony for a dad than him. At the very least, Tony can control who he kills when he's Iron Man.

Pepper's eyebrow is raised delicately. "Really," she says. She actually looks less surprised than Bruce was anticipating.

"Stepdad," Bruce corrects.

"Huh," Pepper says. Bruce belatedly wonders if that would make _her_ feel bad, since if he's the stepdad, she's the one who's been edged out of the family, but Pepper just looks slightly amused. "I can't believe you guys didn't invite me to the wedding."

Bruce groans, but that does make Tony laugh. "Honestly," he says, "I think Bruce's little incident at her school is what got Sasha these friends. They were very excited when they told us that the jagweed who called her the name pissed his pants."

Bruce groans again, feeling the mortification like a lump in his stomach, but Pepper's smiling at him. "I'm not surprised," she says.

"I don't think that's true," Bruce feels the need to correct Tony. "They thought the Hulk was cool, but I'm sure she would've made these friends anyway."

When he looks up, though, Tony's shaking his head at Pepper with a private, no way look, that secret language the two of them have between each other sometimes. "Please," he says to Bruce. "It's the ultimate my dad can beat up your dad. Maybe I should take the suit down to her school and shoot some kids."

"That's not funny," Bruce says, but Pepper laughs, and then asks what the friends were like, and at least the conversation moves on.

**

Sasha's friends are around a lot more after that, hanging out after school, doing stuff on the weekends. It's weird to have kids around a lot, but it's also kind of nice, more noise in the house. It feels friendly and crowded, the kind of family house Bruce always wanted when he thought about having kids with Betty.

One afternoon the doorbell rings and Bruce seems to be the only one around, so he goes to answer it. On the doorstep is a pretty woman in her 40s, her dark hair in a ponytail. "Oh," she says. "Hi. I'm Rachel's mom, I'm here to pick her up?"

Bruce hadn't even realized that Rachel was here. "Oh," he says. "Um, sure. Let me --" He fumbles for the intercom. "Sasha, Rachel's mom is here!" he says.

"In a minute!" comes back from Sasha's room.

He smiles apologetically at Rachel's mom. "C'mon in," he says, opening the door wider. "I'm Bruce."

"Jen," Rachel's mom says. "Oh, you're Sasha's dad's friend that's staying here, right? Rachel told me."

Well, that's a relief, anyway -- Bruce didn't know if all Sasha's friends were telling everyone that he's Sasha's stepdad or what. "Yeah, that's right," he says. "I'm working with Tony on some projects."

"How interesting!" Jen says, and she really does seem interested, asking Bruce all about his research and where he lived before this, and if he's enjoying Malibu. Pepper comes home in the middle of it, and Bruce introduces her, but Jen jumps right back into asking about Bruce's favorite restaurants.

"Um, I'll go see if Sasha and Rachel are ready," Pepper says after a second of being more-or-less ignored.

When Pepper comes back into the hall, Sasha and Rachel trailing behind her, Jen is laughing at something Bruce just said. Bruce isn't really used to his jokes getting that much of a reaction, but it's nice. Jen starts to say something else, adding onto what he just said about Malibu, but -- "Mom," Rachel interrupts sharply. "I'm ready to go."

Rachel's usually a pretty laid-back kid, so Bruce is a little surprised at her tone, but whatever, twelve-year-olds are nothing if not moody. "Okay, sweetheart," Jen says, also sounding surprised. "Do you have all your stuff?" Rachel nods, arms crossed over her chest, and Jen looks over at him. "It was really nice to meet you, Bruce," she says, touching his arm in a friendly gesture, and then he opens the front door to let her and Rachel out of the house.

When he shuts the door behind them and turns back around, Pepper and Sasha are still in the hallway, both staring at him. Sasha looks mad, and Pepper looks unsettled but a little amused. "What?" Bruce says.

"Are you going to date Rachel's mom?!" Sasha says, sounding outraged.

Bruce almost chokes. "What?" he says, blindsided. "Where on earth would you get that idea?"

Sasha looks at Pepper like she expects some support from that direction, which is even more surprising. When Bruce looks at Pepper, confused, Pepper says, "She was hitting on you." She's still smiling a little, like she finds the whole thing kind of funny, though she looks a little wary at the same time.

"What?" Bruce says. "No, she wasn't." They were just having a nice conversation -- right? Wait, was she hitting on him?

"She _touched_ your _arm_!" Sasha says, in a tone of voice that's so shocked you'd think she was saying that Jen had ripped her clothes off and thrown herself against Bruce's chest.

Now Bruce is a little bit amused too, and Pepper has her hand up over her mouth like she's trying to hide a smile. "I -- okay," he says. "I still don't think -- that doesn't mean anything."

"Yes, it does!" Sasha insists.

"Sasha," Bruce starts, trying to tell her she's overreacting and it was just a casual conversation, but before he can say any more Sasha lets out this aggravated breath like she's so upset she can't even express it.

"It's so unfair!" she almost wails. "Just because she's single and you can marry her and go be Rachel's dad, doesn't mean you should!"

"I --" Bruce starts. He -- what? What is she even talking about?

But before he can get anything more out than that, Sasha turns and stomps off in the direction of her room, looking on the verge of tears. Bruce turns to look at Pepper, completely flabbergasted. Pepper looks a little rueful, but way less confused than Bruce feels -- she actually looks more thoughtful than anything.

"What the hell was that about?" Bruce says. Maybe Pepper can explain it to him, because he has no idea where any of that came from.

Pepper smiles at him a little, like he's a big dumb lunk but she likes him anyway. "Rachel's mom really was flirting with you quite a bit," she says. When Bruce starts to open his mouth to say that he really doesn't think she was, she was just being nice, Pepper puts her hand on his arm and says, "Trust me." Pepper usually does know what she's talking about, but -- seriously, what?

After a quick glance toward the doorway to make sure that Sasha's still gone, Pepper actually takes a step in to kiss him. Somehow it feels mildly territorial, which is surprising. Bruce kisses her back, but his head's still kind of reeling -- Jen knows he's the Hulk, right? Why on earth would a nice normal woman with a perfectly nice, undestroyed life want to flirt with Bruce?

"Sasha overreacted," Pepper says as she pulls away, "but please don't date Rachel's mom." She's smiling a little like she's mostly kidding, like she knows he wouldn't. But her eyes are a little bit troubled, and underneath Bruce can tell she didn't like Jen talking to him like that one bit.

**

Sasha's still sulking at dinner, picking at her food and not talking, to the point where Tony finally says, "What's with you?"

Sasha's head comes up to look at him, and then she glares at Bruce. "Bruce is going to marry Rachel's mom."

"Oh my God," Bruce mutters, rolling his eyes. "I am not, would you let it go?"

"Bruce is going to what?" Tony says. "What about Rachel's dad?"

"Divorced," Pepper says. Which is not helpful.

"And Rachel's mom is totally hot even though she's old and she's totally into him and it's so embarrassing!" Sasha says.

"Come on, she is not into me," Bruce says.

"What are you doing making friends who have hot moms and letting them come over to the house?" Tony says to Sasha, like he is very distressed by the idea of hot moms coming over and hitting on Bruce.

"How was I supposed to know she has a slutty mom?!" Sasha says.

"Hey," Bruce says, at the same time as Pepper says, "Sasha."

"Well, she is," Sasha mutters down at her plate. "She was practically making out with you right in our front hall."

"She was?" Tony says, and shoots a glance at Bruce that is almost as worried as Sasha's.

Bruce rolls his eyes. "She was not. We were having a polite conversation and Sasha freaked out for no reason."

"Well," Pepper says. "Not _no_ reason."

Sasha gives Pepper a grateful look, which is the exact opposite of the look that Bruce gives her. Pepper makes a, _well, it wasn't_ face at him, and says, "Bruce didn't seem to notice, but Rachel's mom was definitely interested in him."

Bruce's face is getting hot -- he's not used to having people hit on him, or having it be the subject of a group discussion where everyone seems upset about it. "Look," he says. "Whatever, it doesn't matter if she was or wasn't, it's not like I'm going to go out with her. So relax, all of you."

"You better not," Sasha says, bratty and mad in a way that Bruce is not used to having her talk to him, and he expects Tony to tell her to watch her tone, but Tony pretty much looks like he agrees with her.

"Don't worry, Sash," Tony says. "If she comes over to pick Rachel up again, I'll answer the door. Bruce is too hot to let wander around enticing single moms."

Now Bruce's face is _really_ getting hot, which is even more embarrassing than this whole conversation, and jeez, Tony shouldn't really be saying stuff like that in front of Sasha anyway. Pepper's back to looking amused, whether at Bruce blushing or the whole situation, Bruce couldn't say. "Mmm, yeah, looking at Tony should repulse her enough so she never comes back," Pepper says.

Tony makes a horrible face at her, even though he pretty much walked right into that one. Pepper makes a face back, and Bruce says, "Can we change the subject please?" Thankfully Pepper has pity on him and brings up Sasha's band concert next week and whether her uniform needs to be dry-cleaned, and that does seem to distract everybody.

**

Everyone still seems kind of worked up after dinner. Sasha stalks off to her room and Tony to his workshop. Pepper takes a call with someone she seems very frustrated with, who Bruce thinks might be a congressman. Bruce does not know what's wrong with all of them. He rolls his eyes and settles down in the living room with a book, because he, at least, is going to be relaxed.

That's fine for about an hour, when he hears a horrific thud from downstairs. Shit. He jumps up and races down to the workshop, where Tony is lying apparently unconscious with blood all over his arm and a scorch mark on the floor beside him.

"Tony!" Bruce says, and rushes over, though by the time he gets to him, Tony is opening his eyes and starting to sit up, looking sheepish. "Ow," he says when he sees Bruce, moving his hand to his head, feeling for a bump. As he does, he seems to notice the blood on his arm. "Whoops," he says, but doesn't seem too put out.

"Jesus, Tony, what happened?" Bruce says, kneeling down next to him.

"Tony!" Pepper says from behind him, appearing on the stairs herself, having apparently hung up on that congressman when she heard the noise. "Are you okay?"

"I'm fine, no big deal," Tony says. "The stabilizers need a little work." Now that Bruce looks, he's wearing just the calves and feet of a new suit, which maybe means he's working on a new kind of thruster.

"Look at me," Bruce says. He wants to check his pupils.

"Oh my God, you're bleeding," Pepper says.

Tony rolls his eyes, but obediently looks at Bruce, his dark eyes direct and intense, staring Bruce right in the eye. His pupils look okay, though, the same size. "Do you have a flashlight?" Bruce says, glancing around for one. 

"Table," Tony says, nodding over, and now Pepper's kneeling next to them, holding a paper towel to where Tony's bleeding, trying to mop it up a little.

"Tony," she says rebukingly as Bruce stands up to get the flashlight. "I think you need stitches."

Tony makes a disgusted noise. "Please, it's fine," he says. "You two mother hens need to relax."

Bruce brings the flashlight over. "Look at me again," he says. He shines it in Tony's eyes, watching the pupils dilate like normal, and then makes Tony follow the light with his eyes to be extra sure.

"What happened?" Sasha says from behind them. When Bruce looks, she's standing on the stairs. "Ew, you're all bloody."

"I'm fine," Tony says.

"We're taking him to the emergency room so he can get stitches," Pepper says.

"No, you're not," Tony says. "I hate doctors, and I'm fine. Do you know how many times I shot myself into the ceiling when I was living here by myself?"

"Oh my God," Pepper mutters.

"Ugh, you're so dumb," Sasha says, rolling her eyes, and leaves again.

"Your pupils look okay so the concussion's not so bad," Bruce says. "But you do need stitches." The cut on Tony's arm is a couple of inches across and looks deep.

"I said I'm not going to the emergency room," Tony says, irritable and edgy. "Am I a ghost? Can you all not hear me?"

"Oh, I hear you," Pepper says, just as irritable back, voice getting a little louder. "But you are definitely getting stitches."

"Whatever," Tony says, but then looks at Bruce, who's taking Tony's pulse, just to check on his heart, make sure everything's okay. "Fine, Bruce can give them to me."

Bruce looks up, startled. "I'm not a medical doctor," he says.

"Please," Tony says. "I know you were treating people in Kolkata. Anyway, it's just stitches, I'm not asking you to perform brain surgery."

Bruce doesn't know about this, but he feels like it's unlikely that Tony's going to give in and go the hospital, and that cut does look nasty. He hesitates, but finally sighs and says, "I'll get my bag," heading upstairs for his supplies.

When he comes back down to the workshop, Tony and Pepper are fighting. "... just saying it'd be great if you could deal with your emotions without gravely injuring yourself," Pepper's saying, still putting pressure on his cut.

"My emotions?" Tony says, like this is coming out of left field. "What do my emotions have to do with anything?"

"Just because Bruce --" Pepper starts, but then sees Bruce in the doorway and stops again.

Well, that's not at all ominous. "Everything okay?" Bruce says.

Tony has his shirt off now so Pepper could get at his cut better, sitting on one of the counters in the workshop, feet dangling like a little boy. "Yeah," Tony says as Bruce gets closer, shooting Pepper a dirty look. "Pepper just seems to think I can't be direct about anything, like she's one to talk."

"Um," Bruce says, not quite sure what's going on. He sets his bag down next to Tony and starts getting out a local anesthetic, gauze, a needle and thread. "Okay?"

Tony fixes Bruce with what is a very direct look, all things considered. "Do you want to fuck Rachel's mom?" he says.

Bruce is startled enough that he manages to inhale some of his own spit, and starts coughing. Oh God, is that what this is about? For Pete's sake.

And the distressing thing is, he really doesn't. Jen is pretty, but the thought of sleeping with anyone who isn't Tony or Pepper leaves a bad taste in his mouth. Tony is still looking right at Bruce, waiting for him to finish coughing, and Pepper is too, and when Bruce manages to stop, he has to look away, start getting the injection ready. "No," he says, pretending to be very focused on drawing the lidocaine up into the syringe. "I don't."

"See?" Tony says to Pepper, as though he's been the one being very reasonable this whole time. "I told you he didn't want to cheat on us."

Um, what? Bruce snorts out a little laugh, but he feels a little blindsided. "Okay, uh, I'm going to inject you with anesthetic now," he says, and moves to rub alcohol on Tony's shoulder, near the cut. Tony's skin is warm and golden under his hands, and Tony doesn't wince as he gives him the shot.

"Tony," Pepper says, sounding embarrassed. "We never said we're exclusive."

"Yeah, that's what's worrying me," Tony says. "But Bruce, you wanna be exclusive, right?"

Tony and Pepper both look at him, Tony a little combative, Pepper worried. Bruce looks away, moving to start cleaning Tony's cut a little, wanting to make sure nothing's in it before he stitches it up. He hasn't been really serious with anyone, explicitly exclusive with them, since Betty. It feels like a big step, and he wasn't prepared to have this conversation when he came down here.

Though -- it crosses his mind that they could be worried that Bruce might end up giving them herpes or something if he's out having sex with neighborhood moms. It's probably not so much an actual relationship thing as it is a practical one. He shouldn't be making a big thing of it in his mind, like it's the same as it was with Betty.

So that's okay. But even so, well. He does want to be exclusive, actually. He would probably feel pretty shitty too if some mom were hitting on either of them.

"Yeah," Bruce finally admits, still focused on Tony's cut. He moves to put down the alcohol wipes and pick up the surgical thread.

"Great, so we're exclusive," Tony says. "Done deal. There, see, that wasn't so hard, right? Now he can't sleep with that floozy."

"Tony," Pepper says, but when Bruce glances at her, she's smiling what looks like in spite of herself, her shoulders relaxing.

"What, floozy?" Tony says. "Well, honestly. What kind of woman hits on a married man in his own home?"

Bruce looks up at him, startled, but Tony's grinning. "That's a joke," he says. "Calm down, big guy."

Bruce shakes his head at him, but he can feel himself smiling a little too. "Hold still," he says. "I'm going to sew you up."


	8. Chapter 8

One day in April, Tony gets a call around noon from Sasha's school. Apparently she asked to go to the bathroom during third period and then never came back to class. They eventually found her in the third stall of the girl's room on the second floor, crying. The teacher who found her brought her down to the nurse's office until she could get herself under control, but she couldn't seem to stop, and finally it had been going on long enough that the school just called Tony to come pick her up.

As he relates this to Bruce, Tony looks worried under his grogginess -- the call clearly woke him up. Bruce is pretty sure he was up all night like a maniac working on something he thought would really improve the suit's radar capabilities. "Apparently it's her mom's birthday," Tony says. He looks even more worried. Sasha hadn't mentioned that to any of them. "She told the nurse."

"Oh," Bruce says. God. That's always hard.

Tony runs his hand through his hair. It's still flat on one side from sleeping on it, but now it's also messy. "You wanna go to Athens for the weekend?" he says.

Bruce blinks. "What?" he says. It's Thursday. Also… what? "Athens… Greece?"

"No, Athens, Georgia," Tony says, like the mere idea that he might be talking about a non-Greece Athens is ridiculous. "I'm craving peaches and REM. No, but seriously, getting out of town might cheer her up, right? We usually stay right on the beach when we go, it's gorgeous, you'll love it."

Bruce is still not used to living with someone who suggests going to Athens for the weekend the way someone else suggest driving up the coast to a B&B an hour away. The perks of a private jet. "Um… yeah, I guess, maybe?" Bruce says. "Why Athens?"

Tony shrugs. "She keeps reading that Greek mythology book, haven't you noticed?"

"Oh," Bruce says. "Yeah, that is true."

"Okay, I'll call Pepper," Tony says. "You guys can pack bags for all of us and meet me and Sasha at the runway, right?"

Bruce blinks even more. "What?" he manages to say. "Now?"

Tony's already dialing his phone, like it's a done deal. "Yeah," he says, like he's surprised Bruce is surprised. "Distract her right away, not let her have time to mope around at home. Why, you got plans?"

"No," Bruce says. "But… I mean, won't it still take a day to arrange everything?" If nothing else, Pepper has a job, right? And Sasha has school tomorrow?

But Tony just grins at him, putting the phone to his ear. "You haven't seen Pepper in action, have you?" he says, and then Pepper must pick up, because he says into the phone. "Pep? Hey, so, funny story…" and starts walking back to his room, presumably to get dressed since he's still in his pajamas.

Bruce stands in the middle of the living room for a long moment, trying to get his head around all that -- then when nothing happens to take any of it back, he shrugs and goes to pack. Not the first time he's left the country on a moment's notice, and this is the most pleasant way it's ever happened, he has to say.

**

Pepper really is an impressive person. Within the hour, she and Bruce are pulling up right next to the plane on the runway -- so weird -- with a bag packed for each of them, reservations made at a private villa in Athens, and a thousand other things taken care of at Stark Industries and SHIELD. Probably a million more than Bruce doesn't even know about, and Pepper doesn't even seem frazzled.

Tony and Sasha are already on the plane, but it doesn't look like they've been there long. Sasha's looking around with her eyes wide -- and yeah, it is _pretty weird_ to be on a plane with leather couches and thick white rugs. Sasha's eyes and nose still look red, like she's definitely been crying, but she's stopped now and it does look like the idea of this trip has perked her up.

"Took you long enough," Tony says, but he's clearly teasing. Pepper rolls her eyes, but kisses him as she sits down in the leather seat next to him.

Bruce hands Sasha the bag of stuff he packed for her that's all things to do on the plane -- her iPad, her Nintendo DS, some books. She manages a watery smile at him as he sits down in the seat next to her, the two of them facing Tony and Pepper.

She hangs in there for the first couple hours of the flight, watching Monty Python on her iPad and laughing to herself occasionally, but somewhere over the Atlantic, Bruce starts noticing her sniffling. Pepper matter-of-factly hands Sasha some Kleenex.

"I'm okay," Sasha says thickly, though she takes the tissues as she rubs at her eyes with one hand. "I'm sorry. I'm sorry." The last sorry is swallowed up in a sob.

"Don't apologize," Tony says, looking remarkably unperturbed by her tears for someone who literally is taking his kid to Greece because he was so upset she was crying. "Anyone would cry. Hey, Bruce, what'd you do on your mom's last birthday?"

Bruce looks up at him over his glasses. Out of the corner of his eye, he can see that Sasha's looking at him, startled and distracted, which was probably Tony's intent. "Got drunk," Bruce admits after a second.

"Is your mom dead?" Sasha says.

When he was a kid, Bruce used to think that by the time he was grown up, it wouldn't even bother him anymore, that he wouldn't still miss her. "Yeah," he says.

"What happened?" Sasha says.

There's no way to say it that softens it at all, so Bruce has stopped trying. "My dad murdered her," he says.

Sasha looks taken aback, which is how people always look when they hear that. Even Tony and Pepper, who Bruce knows have already read that in his file, are both looking at him with serious, dark eyes. He smiles at them a little. "It's okay," he says. "It was a long time ago. What did you do on your mom's last birthday, Tony?"

Tony actually pauses, looking a little squirrelly, and when he doesn't answer right away, Pepper says, "He blew up half the lab."

"Hey," Tony says. "That was an accident. Mostly."

"Oh yeah," Sasha says. "Your mom is dead too." She's looking at him like she forgot that, that she and Tony have that in common, her face softening from how she normally looks at Tony.

"Yeah," Tony says. "We're a real bunch of orphans around here. Pepper's the only loser with a mom."

Pepper smiles a little to herself, and looks back at her phone. "No dad though," she says.

"Is your dad dead?" Sasha says. She still looks so fascinated by everything in this conversation, big eyes taking it all in.

"Could be," Pepper says. After a second she looks at Sasha and smiles a little ruefully. "He left before I was born. I've never met him."

"Oh," Sasha says. Then to Bruce's surprise, she darts a little mischievous glance at Tony. "Me too, until three months ago."

Even though it's obvious to Bruce that she's teasing, Tony looks crushed. "I didn't mean to," he says. "If I had known…"

But Sasha rolls her eyes and interrupts him. "I know," she says. "I was joking."

"Oh," Tony says. He looks a little sheepish. "Right, I knew that."

Bruce laughs a little. "Relax, superdad," he says.

Tony crosses his arms over his chest, obviously not used to being the one who didn't get a joke. Or the one who's the butt of a joke. Which maybe he is going to have to get used to now that he's the parent of a pre-teen. "Shut up," he says. "I hate you guys. See if I take you to Greece ever again."

Sasha laughs and rubs the back of her hand against her eyes one more time, but the whole conversation really does seem to have cheered her up. Bruce guesses he would've felt better as a kid too, if all the adults he was with also had dead moms. Not like such a freak.

**

Tony manages to harass them all into going down to the beach the first afternoon they're there, even convincing Pepper to put her phone down and unplug for a few hours. It's a beautiful day, sky clear and blue, sand golden, sun warm on their skin. Pepper's wearing a two-piece swimsuit, but also a giant hat and 50 SPF sunscreen.

"You want me to rub that on you?" Tony says, wiggling his eyebrows at her. Pepper rolls her eyes, but hands the tube over to him, Tony moving happily behind her to start smearing it on her shoulders. Bruce settles down on a chaise lounge next to them, trying to be subtle about how he's watching Tony touch her. Sometimes he feels a little wistful, watching them together, so solid and open and being able to take touching each other in public for granted. Even though not being counted on as part of a couple is the whole point of his thing with them.

Sasha drops her stuff on the sand and trots down towards the water. "You put on sunscreen?" Tony calls after her.

"I will!" Sasha calls back.

Tony rolls his eyes and says in an undertone to Bruce and Pepper, "Don't let me forget to make her put some on."

It feels so good and so foreign to all be out together relaxing, no one called upon to save the world or to run a Stark Industries press conference or needing to go buy clarinet reeds because she has band fourth period tomorrow and her last one broke. Bruce leans back, getting out his book, letting the sun bake down on his skin, time going by slow and easy.

He's almost forgotten where he is, deep into the story, when Tony says, "What's she doing?" His voice is sharp and concerned, like Sasha is maybe shooting heroin or killing a small animal.

Bruce glances up from his book, startled, following Tony's look down the beach. Where Sasha is… talking to a couple of skinny boys about her age. Oh no, call the cops. "What?" Pepper says, clearly also confused by what the problem is.

"What do those little pervs think they're doing, drooling over her in a bathing suit?" Tony says, starting to get up from his lounge chair.

"Tony," Pepper says, her voice filled with laughter. Sasha is wearing a one-piece bathing suit with jean shorts over it, shy and roly-poly. She looks more like a chubby little girl than anybody that anyone is perving over, and the little boys she's talking to look like they haven't hit puberty yet. But Tony is somehow always convinced that Sasha is the most beautiful girl in the world, which is kind of adorable, if a little misguided.

"What?" Tony says. "Someone has to tell them to back off." He's actually on his feet, starting to head over. Oh God.

"Tony," Bruce says, but of course Tony doesn't listen.

"Oh God," Pepper says in a low voice to Bruce. It's like watching a car wreck with no way of stopping it. They're far enough away that Bruce can't hear what they're saying, but he can see that Tony's saying something sharp to the boys, who immediately take off at a rapid pace. Sasha is beet-red and furious. She and Tony exchange a few words and then she comes stalking back toward them without looking at Tony.

Tony's trying to catch up to her. "Hey," he says. "Sasha. Hey."

Sasha whips around now that she's back on their private section of beach, out of earshot of anyone but Pepper and Bruce. "What is _wrong_ with you?" Sasha says. She's close to angry tears, her fists clenched.

"You're welcome," Tony says. "You have to watch out for boys like that. They're going to be all over you and they're only thinking about one thing."

"Are you serious?!" Sasha says. "We were just talking! Why are you such a psycho?!"

Tony rolls his eyes. "Please, I did you a favor. I know how boys think, and it's disgusting, believe me," he says. "Bruce, back me up here."

Whoa, whoa, why is he getting dragged into this? Bruce puts his hands up. "I'm not --" he says.

"You're so ridiculous!" Sasha says, still focused on Tony. "It's so unfair! So you can have a girlfriend _and_ a boyfriend, but I'm not even allowed to _talk_ to a boy?!"

Everyone goes still and quiet so abruptly that Bruce can practically hear the record scratch. Tony's frozen in place, his face stricken, and for a moment no one says anything at all. Bruce's stomach is tied up in knots, and when he glances at Pepper she's pale and shocked.

"What did you just say?" Tony finally says.

"We were just _talking_!" Sasha almost wails. "And you humiliated me!"

"No, the, uh, the other thing," Tony says.

"Oh, that you're super slutty?" Sasha says.

Tony clears his throat and shoots a panicked look over at Bruce and Pepper. "Um, yeah, what makes you think that I'm dating…" He trails off, like he doesn't want to actually say who, as if Sasha might be referring to a completely different boyfriend and girlfriend than Bruce and Pepper.

Sasha rolls her eyes. "Please, it's so obvious. Bruce is always, like, sneaking out of your room in the morning. It's so gross."

Oh God. Bruce feels his face go hot, and even Tony has gone faintly red. "Um," Tony says. "I, uh… we're not…." He shoots a look at Bruce, voice fading out. But then he clearly decides there's no point in denying it. "I mean, are you okay with that?" he says, suddenly trying to get brisk, like it's no big deal, trying to take control of the conversation back.

Sasha rolls her eyes again like that's a dumb question. "Yeah, I guess," she says. "I just wish you'd marry Bruce already so he couldn't leave. Gay marriage is legal in California, you know," she says, in a tone like she thinks Tony might not be aware.

Tony still looks somewhat stunned. "Oh," he says blankly. "Uh… noted. I, uh --"

"And it's so unfair that you make out with Pepper in front of everybody but Bruce has to sneak around. I bet he'd like to make out with you and Pepper in public!" Sasha says.

Bruce's face gets even hotter as all three of them turn to look at him. "Um," he says.

From the look on Tony's face, he is starting to move past his shock into seeing the funny side of this. "So, takeaway," he says, trying not to smile. "You want me to make out with both Bruce and Pepper in front of you, all the time."

"What?" Sasha says, suddenly looking horrified. "No! Ew! Don't make out with anybody in front of me!"

"So then --" Tony says, faking confusion, clearly about to mess with her more.

But Sasha cuts him off, making an aggravated noise. "Ugh! Just be normal! It's so dumb you've been sneaking around when it's so obvious, I'm not stupid."

"Okay," Tony says. "Um, sorry, I guess."

"Anyway, it's not fair that you get to date whoever you want but you freak out if a boy even looks at me," Sasha says, going back to what her original point was, what feels like a lifetime ago. Bruce's head is spinning. "You're such a hypocrite."

"Hey," Tony says, voice sharp. "That's different."

"It is not!" Sasha says. "How is it different?"

"Because," Tony says, frustrated and sounding exactly like a dad in a way that is almost surprising, like a transformation has finally been completed. Maybe he notices too, because he blinks, and then adds, "Because I'm an adult, and because it's different when it's two people you love than it is when it's a couple of Eurotrash skeevs hitting on a child."

Wait... did he just say love? Tony doesn't seem to have noticed, but Bruce's heart is suddenly pounding. Pepper glances at Bruce, looking off-balance and mildly worried, and Bruce isn't sure whether it's because she's hurt that Tony just included Bruce in the people that he loves when this is just a casual relationship, or what. Anyway -- why isn't Tony explaining to Sasha that his thing with Bruce is obviously on a different, temporary, non-serious level than his relationship with Pepper?

"I'm not a _child_ ," Sasha is saying, through the pounding in Bruce's ears.

"Newsflash, you are a child," Tony says, but Bruce is barely paying attention. Love. But it was probably just a figure of speech, because anyway, who wants to tell their kid they're having a casual fuck-buddy thing with someone who isn't their serious girlfriend?

Even if you are exclusive. And even if that fuck-buddy is living with you and your kid is telling people he's her dad. Hmm.

Tony and Sasha are still fighting, but Bruce can't concentrate on the words, everything about his life right now appearing from a new perspective. And it's not like it's a complete surprise, he's not stupid -- he knew he fit here in a way he hasn't fit anywhere, that he has people. But love. Not that many people have ever loved Bruce. This might actually more than double the total number, now that he's thinking about it. And then somehow it's like there's a deep well of sadness opening up inside him, which is stupid, it's so stupid.

Oh, and he loves them too, now that he's thinking about it. So yeah. Fuck.

In the background, Sasha and Tony are almost yelling. "Tony," Pepper interjects gently, clearly trying to stick up for Sasha. "I know you mean well, but you probably shouldn't police her sexuality so much."

But that, of course, turns out to be about the most mortifying thing she could've said. "Pepper!" Sasha wails. "Ew!" She turns on her heel and stalks back towards the villa, clearly too upset to stay in contact with them for one more minute.

"Oh dear," Pepper says, watching her receding back.

Tony snickers. He's always happy when someone else blows it with Sasha worse than he does. But he moves to hug Pepper, slumping into her. "Kill me," Bruce hears him mumble into Pepper's shoulder. "I'm terrible at this."

Pepper kisses the side of his head, then moves to sit back down on her lounge chair, next to Bruce. Instead of moving to sit in his own, Tony just follows her, squeezing onto the same one, his arm around her. "Well, that was quite a conversation," he says to Bruce, leaning his head back against the chair like he's exhausted. Pepper's half on his lap.

Bruce blinks, trying to get his head back into what's going on around him. "Yeah," he says.

"Oh well, secret's out," Tony says. "She knows we're fucking. Bright side, you wanna move into our room tonight?"

When they had settled in to the villa, Tony and Pepper had taken the master bedroom and Bruce the room across the hall. But he guesses there is no point to the charade, which apparently wasn't working anyway. He shrugs. "Sure."

**

After dinner, they're all sitting around the living room, talking idly about watching a movie, though nobody can agree on one. Bruce goes into the kitchen to make some tea while they fight it out, putting the kettle on and leaning back against the counter to wait for it, looking out the window at the clear blue of the sea.

"Hey," Tony says from behind him. "Do we have any candy?"

Bruce shrugs, turning to look at him. "How should I know?"

"You helped Pepper pack," Tony says, and starts opening cupboards. Bruce laughs a little, because okay, sure.

"Oh, hey," Tony says, faux casual, as he keeps opening them. "So, uh, Pepper alerted me to the fact that I said I love you."

Oh. He's here to walk that back -- he didn't really mean it. That makes sense, though, obviously it was just a heat-of-the-moment thing. Nothing to take too seriously. Bruce gets it. "Oh," Bruce says, looking away, fidgeting with his tea bag a little. "No, don't worry about it. I know you were just making a point to Sasha."

Out of the corner of his eye, Tony goes still, and when Bruce glances up at him, he's looking at Bruce very seriously. "No," he says after a second. "That's not -- um, I meant what I said. I love you."

"Oh," Bruce says again, feeling blank. Okay, so… oh.

"So, uh, yeah, I just wanted to make sure you weren't freaking out or anything," Tony says. "You know, since you're a little bit of a flight risk." He's being flip and casual, kind of joking around, but his eyes look nervous and vulnerable.

"No," Bruce says. "I wasn't -- I, uh, I'm fine. That's fine." He takes a deep breath, wanting to leave it at that, but Tony's shrinking back into himself a little, face starting to shut down. But Bruce hasn't said this to anyone in over a decade, so, just, give him a second here.

"Well, good," Tony says.

The kettle starts whistling, and Bruce moves to take it off the burner. Tony smiles a forced smile. "Okay, great, so I guess I'll --" he starts.

"I, uh, I love you too," Bruce says, before Tony can leave the room. He feels faintly ridiculous, steaming kettle in his hand, wearing madras shorts that he thinks belong to Tony. He starts pouring hot water into his mug, heart pounding nervously even though that's stupid -- Tony said it first, it's not like Bruce is taking a risk here. Even if saying it feels like being stripped naked. His mouth is dry.

"Oh," Tony says, pulling up short. He blinks. "Really?"

"Yeah," Bruce says. He clears his throat. Water chuckles as it pours into the mug, tea starting to steep, and he puts the kettle down on a cool burner.

Tony's still staring at him, a weird expression on his face like he's processing that information. "Well, that's pretty great," he says conversationally. He's starting to smile.

"Yeah," Bruce says, starting to smile a little himself.

"C'mere," Tony says, and pulls him in to kiss him.

They're still kissing a full minute later, when Sasha says, "Ew," from behind them. They laugh as they break apart, turning to see her looking disgusted in the doorway. "Do we have any popcorn?" she says. "Also, ew. Maybe I did like it better when you were sneaking around."

When they watch the movie, Pepper curls up against Bruce's side, pulling his arm around her, and Tony puts his feet in Bruce's lap. Sasha pointedly pretends she can't see any of it. Bruce strokes his thumb against Pepper's shoulder, and rests his other hand on Tony's ankle, and feels strangely, unmistakably happy.

**

It's weird to roll his suitcase into Tony and Pepper's room later that night, especially when he runs into Sasha in the hallway as he's doing it. But she just rolls her eyes while suppressing a little bit of a smile, so he guesses that's okay. Even if he's blushing, aware she can probably see the king-sized bed behind him.

Tony's lounging on said bed, watching as Bruce starts to settle in. The room is big enough that there are actually three dressers. "That one's yours," Tony says, pointing, and Bruce moves to start putting his clothes away. Even though it's just for a weekend, it still feels like a milestone.

Pepper comes out of the bathroom with her face scrubbed clean and settles down on the bed with a thing of lotion that she starts rubbing on her legs. She smiles at him. "This is nice," she says.

"So," Tony says. "You gonna move into our room when we get home too?"

Bruce smiles at him, feeling shy. He puts a few t-shirts into a drawer. "This is getting serious," he says.

"Yeah, it is," Tony says, grinning. "Hey, Pepper, Bruce loves us."

"He does?" Pepper says. She looks at Bruce with her eyes lit up, surprised and pleased.

Bruce starts blushing. "Yeah, I do," he says. He coughs, feeling nervous.

But Pepper beams at him. "I love you too," she says, and comes over to kiss him. She smells like cocoa butter. "You do have to move into our room when we get home," she says when she pulls back.

"Okay," Bruce says.

Bruce has been in their room before, obviously. He's slept there. But somehow it's different being in here without sneaking around, everything very deliberate, putting his clothes in a drawer, watching Pepper moisturize and Tony lie on his back with his head dangling off the bed, complaining about Sasha's attitude. He feels like he could get used to it.


	9. Chapter 9

It's three weeks later and they're back in the States when Steve shows up at their door, conspicuous in his Captain America costume, shield strapped to his back. It's been months since the Avengers were called on to save the world, so Bruce shouldn't be surprised something's finally come up, but he still feels his stomach sinking, looking at him, the twitchy anxiety that comes from SHIELD knowing where he is and wanting something from him. 

"Dr. Banner," Steve says when he opens the door. "I'm glad I found you. Is Mr. Stark here too?"

Sasha has come up behind Bruce in the front hall, and is staring at Steve with her eyes wide. "Tony!" she yells. "Captain America's here!"

"Ugh, that douche--" comes back over the intercom before Bruce manages to say, "JARVIS, mute," cutting Tony off. 

Steve, of course is politely ignoring that, smiling at Sasha. "You must be Stark's daughter," he says to her, stepping through the door Bruce is holding open for him and holding out his hand to shake. "I'm Steve Rogers."

"Hi," Sasha says, shaking his hand and looking a little tongue-tied. If she asks Steve for an autograph, Tony's going to kill himself. "Are the Avengers going to save the world?" she says instead. "Is it aliens?"

Kids and aliens, Bruce swears. Though he is interested to hear what it is too. 

"As a matter of fact," Steve says, looking worried again. He glances at Bruce. "It is. A unit of the Kree army seems to have gotten lost and come through a portal in Santa Barbara. They've been identified as hostiles."

Sasha's eyes are huge. "Wow," she says. 

Tony comes bounding up the stairs then, taking them two at a time. "What've we got?" he says.

**

It is so weird to be involved in all these battles but have no memory of them whatsoever. Instead, Bruce goes from being on a street in Santa Monica with the other Avengers to waking up with a headache, looking up at a clear blue sky, dust coating his skin. When he sits up, he can see that he's in what appears to be a Hulk-shaped crater in the middle of a field of low bushes, no other humans in sight. He's naked except for the stretchy pants Tony made him, so at least those work, but it's always so unsettling to not know exactly what happened or where everybody else is. He must have fallen from a plane or something, judging from how deep the crater is, and how much dust it looks like he kicked up. He gets to his feet carefully, trying to brush himself off. On his back some leaves and gunk are clinging to the skin -- this is a strawberry field, and he made jam. He flicks it off, but it leaves his skin sticky and stained red in patches.

Well, it's not like it's the first time he's had this experience. He looks around, trying to get his bearings, and sees what looks like a dirt road a hundred yards off. He sighs and starts walking gingerly towards it, watching where he steps since his feet are bare. He should get Tony to make him some stretchy shoes next time. He's so exhausted it's all he can do to put one foot in front of the other.

He's really in the middle of nowhere -- no trucks or cars pass him, even once he's found a paved road. He walks for at least an hour, his feet getting scraped and sore, stepping on bits of gravel now and then, before he hears the first sign of civilization, which is a helicopter far overhead. At first he assumes that it's some traffic chopper or something, but it hovers over him, then starts to descend. So it's either someone he knows, or they didn't do so well in that battle and the Kree are here to get him. God, he's exhausted. He hopes it's not the second one.

He sighs and stops walking, watching the helicopter land -- it's not shooting at him, so that at least leans toward the SHIELD option, and then it's on the ground, Natasha leaning out the door and gesturing at him to come on. The helicopter's crushing some farmer's beans, which Bruce has been being careful not to do, but he guesses SHIELD doesn't have time for the niceties. He starts picking his way over to her, hoping nothing with thorns is in this field, limping a little from the hour of walking on rough asphalt.

"Hey," he says -- or yells -- when he gets up to her, running a hand through his hair to try to pat it down into something like a human hairdo. He's got a fine layer of dust all over him.

"Look at you," Natasha yells back, looking unimpressed as her eyes flick over him, making Bruce painfully aware that he is wearing only skin-tight purple pants. But underneath Natasha looks relieved to have found him. "You hurt?"

Bruce shrugs, shaking his head. The perks of the Other Guy, such as they are.

"Good!" Natasha yells, and tosses him some clothes. "Put these on and get in."

Bruce didn't know that SHIELD had merch, but the t-shirt she threw him has SHIELD's logo printed on the front, like something you might wear at a company picnic. Bruce wonders if SHIELD has company picnics. Otherwise, she's brought him too-big sweatpants, also with the SHIELD logo on them, and plastic flip-flops. He wonders if they legitimately don't have his shoe size on file (unlikely), or if they just don't want to pay for another nice pair of shoes to get ruined.

As he's putting on the sweatpants, he yells, "Did we win?"

"Yes," Natasha yells, but her expression looks pretty somber, which is a little unsettling. "We contained the threat."

Bruce is getting a sinking feeling in his stomach. He starts pulling the t-shirt over his head. "Is everybody okay?" he says when he's out the other side, getting his arms into the sleeves.

Natasha frowns a little more. "Get in," she says.

Oh, God, who got hurt. Who is -- nobody's dead, right? "Natasha," Bruce yells. This is a terrible conversation to have over helicopter rotors.

"Stark was injured," she says after a second. "I'm here to bring you to the hospital."

Oh, fuck, oh fucking God, what happened. "How bad?" Bruce says, frozen in place. He knows he needs to get in the helicopter so they can get over there, but he can't seem to move. The wind from the rotors is whipping at his hair and the sun's low in the sky, getting in his eyes.

Natasha considers for a moment, not looking at him, then says, "I don't know. They just said he's in surgery. I didn't see what happened."

Bruce feels vaguely like he might throw up, and he fumbles the flip-flops on, managing to finally swing himself up into the second seat in the helicopter. Natasha nods once, waiting for him to buckle himself in, and then they're in the air, the fields below stretching out long and empty underneath him.

They're far away, it turns out. Bruce is mildly impressed Natasha managed to find him. Not for the first time, he wonders if SHIELD implanted him with some kind of tracking device, but that's the kind of train of thought that isn't particularly helpful. Though he'd rather worry about that than about Tony, so he spends most of the helicopter ride very deliberately fuming about an implant, wondering where on his body it might be, and if Tony might be able to do a full body scan, though if it's made of something plastic it would definitely be harder to detect. And maybe they're just tracking his gamma signature anyway, the faint trail the Hulk leaves in the air, and it'd be better if there was a way to mask it, maybe he could start looking into --

He has thought up three different experiments aimed at mitigating the gamma trail by the time Natasha settles the chopper down on the hospital's helipad, which Bruce is pretty sure is only really supposed to be used for emergency medical landings, transporting patients here. Though he's also pretty sure this hospital has an Anthony Stark wing, so he guesses they can do more or less what they want. There's someone from SHIELD waiting there to take the helicopter when Natasha and Bruce get out, so at least they're not leaving it there to clutter up the place.

Fuck, Tony is somewhere in this hospital, hurt badly enough to go to surgery, hurt badly enough Natasha didn't want to tell him how bad -- Bruce doesn't believe for a second that she doesn't know, which means it must be bad. The sickening churning in his stomach gets worse, and he can't block it out anymore with any theory. Oh fuck, oh God.

When they get down to the surgical waiting room, everyone's there, dusty and bruised, Clint with a little blood smeared on his left temple. Bruce is hit by a small figure running up to hug him hard, her head pressing into his chest like she wants to burrow inside him, and he can feel she's shaking. "Hey," he says, stroking her hair. "Hey, you okay?"

Sasha keeps hugging him, not even pulling back to look at him. "I thought you were dead," she says, words muffled against his chest. "You fell out of a plane. I saw it on TV."

Bruce isn't used to anyone worrying about him. It's surprising. "Oh," he says. "No, don't worry. The Hu-- the Other Guy can't get hurt or killed. You never need to worry about me."

He thinks that'll make her feel better, but it seems to make her give a muffled sob, shoulders shuddering. "It's okay," he says quietly, and holds onto her. Pepper has come over to them in the meantime, and when Sasha doesn't show any signs of letting go, Bruce reaches out for Pepper too, leaning in to kiss her on the cheek, giving her as much of a hug as he can with Sasha glued to his side.

"Hey," he says as she pulls back again. She looks pale and drawn, like she's barely holding it together, her eyes a little red, and somehow seeing Pepper like that makes him feel even more panicky than seeing almost anyone else upset, like things must be really out of control. "What happened?" Bruce says in an undertone. "Is he -- how is he?"

Pepper shrugs helplessly. "I don't know," she says. "He -- well, he got swatted down out of the sky and --" she chokes briefly and has to stop, taking deep breaths. Bruce puts his hand on her arm. "They stabilized him before they got him into surgery," Pepper finally says. "But it was touch and go and we haven't heard much more than that. They said he could be in surgery for hours. He had a lot, um, he had a lot of injuries."

Bruce nods, swallowing. He rubs Sasha's back as she finally starts to pull back, sniffling and wiping her eyes. He tries to smile down at her, and she gives him a watery smile back, but then her eyes flick to his clothes. "What are you wearing?" she says. "You look dumb."

Bruce can't help laughing, which somehow makes him feel even more like crying, emotions on all edge, but then Pepper's looking at him with an appraising eye too. "You were limping," she says. "Are you sure you're all right?"

"Oh," Bruce says. "Yeah, I'm fine. I just had to walk barefoot for awhile before Natasha found me."

"Bruce!" Pepper says, but she almost looks relieved to have something else to focus on other than Tony in surgery.

"It's really fine," Bruce says, moving toward the waiting room seats so they can all sit down, but he can't help limping still; his feet are just really sore. And dirty, he notices, looking down at them.

"Let me see if I can find a first aid kit to patch you up," Pepper says, heading for the nurse's station as Bruce goes to sit down, Sasha walking close beside him. She sits down next to him so close she's practically in his lap, still sniffling.

"You sure you're okay?" Bruce says, putting his hand on her back. Across from them, Natasha, Clint, Steve and Thor are sitting in a row, and when Bruce looks up, they're all staring at them, though at Bruce's glance, the men look away fast like they just got caught. Natasha's still giving him that appraising look, though, and it suddenly occurs to Bruce how it must look, Sasha glued to his side and hugging him, him kissing Pepper's cheek, the way he didn't think to check in with anyone else but the two of them. Like a family.

Well, whatever. He doesn't have the energy to care about that right now. Sasha shrugs, sniffling a little more, and he rubs her back.

Pepper comes back from the nurses' station with wipes and bandaids, and sits down on the floor in front of Bruce, still looking relieved to have something to do. "Hey, you don't have to do that," Bruce says anyway, but she shakes her head and pulls one of his feet into her lap to start cleaning it off.

Sasha's sniffling is getting a little worse, and Bruce moves his arm more around her, pulling her close, and she leans her head against his shoulder. "What's going to happen to me if he dies?" she says in a low voice.

Oh, shit, Bruce hadn't thought about that. He looks at Pepper, a little panicky, and she's looking back at him with her eyes wide. But then she blinks and her mouth turns determined. "He's not going to die," she says. But crap, seriously, did Tony update his will since he got custody of Sasha?

"And we'd keep you," Bruce says. Even if it's not true, it should be true. He hopes to God Tony updated his will. And that he doesn't die.

Bruce's feet sting a little as Pepper wipes the black dirt off them, disinfecting the scrapes he got walking barefoot, and God, sitting here in the waiting room where they can't do anything to help Tony is awful. He can't help thinking about what will happen if Tony does die. Just, fuck. The world with a dead Tony sounds bleaker than anything, empty and worthless, and suddenly Bruce feels so vulnerable, like his life is so much more fragile than it was before. If any of the three of them died, it'd just… it's terrifying to imagine. He's not used to this kind of vulnerability anymore, to being in a position where his life would fall apart if any of their breakable, delicate bodies gave out. Childhood cancers and car accidents and guns and SHIELD's enemies, there's so many ways people can die, and Tony in particular throws himself in the way of so many of them.

It makes him feel defenseless, at risk. He knew he loved them, but he didn't know -- well, he didn't know how much his well-being depends on them now, how much he's grown into them. He forgot how love can rip your heart out. It should make him feel like running away, disengaging himself, trying to keep himself safe from that kind of devastation. But he can't imagine that anymore. He hadn't realized.

Pepper carefully puts antibiotic ointment on all of Bruce's scrapes, covering them with clean Band-Aids. He thinks she's taking longer than she needs to, taking more care over the tiny cuts than they deserve, but he's almost jealous of her having something to do. She finally sighs and gets to her feet, going to throw away the blackened wipes she used to clean him up. When she comes back she sits on the other side of Bruce, slumping back in her seat.

The news is on the TV behind Steve with the sound turned off, and all it's playing is footage from the battle. Bruce can see the alien contingent in their sinuous, mobile ships, Tony flying to take them down. Over and over again, he sees them clout Tony out of the sky, sees him smash into the pavement, skitter down the street, ricocheting like a stone. Sees the Hulk roar soundlessly and leap at the ship that did it, carried off into the distance. He can't stop staring at it, and beside him Sasha draws in a wet breath.

"Okay, that's enough," Pepper says, mostly under her breath, and turns it off.

**

It's hours before the surgeon finally comes out to see them, walking slow and exhausted, shoulders slumped under his blue scrubs. Bruce's stomach plummets, and he and Pepper and Sasha all jump to their feet to meet him.

But when they get up to him, he's smiling. Oh God, oh God, that's good, right? "You're the family?" he says, and Pepper nods, clearly not even thinking about it. When Bruce glances over his shoulder, the rest of the Avengers have stayed seated, giving them all a minute, and yeah, okay, yeah.

"Mr. Stark came through the surgery very well," the surgeon says, and the relief that surges over Bruce has a physical quality to it, making him feel lightheaded and strange. "He had a number of internal injuries, but we were able to repair them and he should make a full recovery," the surgeon says, and goes on to detail the injuries and how they fixed them, but Bruce can't concentrate on any of that, a roaring in his ears, his life opening up again. Oh God, it's going to be okay, he's going to be okay, they don't all have to go on without him.

Pepper manages to ask what sound like intelligent questions, though Bruce can't quite concentrate on them either. Beside him, Sasha is smiling through her tears, sagging into Bruce's side. As the surgeon wraps up, he tells them they can go in to see Tony once he's out of recovery.

It feels like it takes forever for Tony to wake up from the anesthetic, even after they've filled everyone else in on how the surgery went, hugs and chatter all across the waiting room. But finally a nurse comes out to get them. "Mr. Stark's family can come back to see him now," she says as Bruce, Sasha, and Pepper all stand up. "That's you?" Everybody nods, and she looks at Pepper specifically. "You're his wife?" she says.

"Oh," Pepper says, looking a little taken aback. "No, his girlfriend."

"Family only," the nurse says. She looks at Bruce. "You?"

Oh. "No," Bruce says, swallowing. He puts his hand on Sasha's shoulder. "But this is his daughter." At least they have one blood member of Tony's family here.

Sasha's eyes go wide. "I have to go back by myself?!" she says.

Bruce doesn't blame her -- after having seen those videos of Tony, he knows he'll be in bad shape, even though he's going to be okay. He wouldn't want to be on his own back there either, and he's a lot older than Sasha.

Pepper puts on her most professional smile. "Can't one of us go back with her?" she says. "She's only twelve."

But the nurse is a steely type. "Family only," she says.

"They _are_ family," Sasha says, getting a little red in the face. And she's not keeping her voice down, so probably most of the waiting room can hear.

"Be reasonable," Pepper says to the nurse, voice still polite and professional, but clearly a little frayed. "Just let an adult go back with her."

"I'm sorry, but it's policy," the nurse says.

Bruce is about to go back to sit down, since Sasha apparently has to go in by herself, but Pepper has had it. "Are you serious?" she says, actually raising her voice, which Bruce hasn't heard Pepper do with anyone but Tony. "Tony Stark has given millions of dollars to this hospital, and you won't let him see the people he wants to see?"

Yeah, that was loud enough that everyone in the waiting room definitely heard. "Ma'am," the nurse tries to interject, but Pepper's not backing down.

"You want a child to see her critically injured father by herself because you think blood family is the only kind there is?" Pepper is clearly at the absolute end of her rope, voice getting even louder, and oh God, this is getting embarrassing. Bruce shoots a glance at Sasha, because she must be wanting to sink through the floor by now, but to his surprise, she's just glaring at the nurse like she's totally on board with what Pepper is yelling. Oh, so… Bruce is the only embarrassed one, okay. "If you don't let us go back there with her, you can expect donations from the Stark Foundation to drop _dramatically_ ," Pepper says, and the once-stern nurse is starting to look nervous. And boy, it's strange to see Pepper throwing the weight of Tony's money around -- she must really be feeling desperate.

"Please, keep your voice down," the nurse says, speaking low, her eyes darting around. "I -- maybe this once, we can make an exception."

"You're damn right, you can," Pepper says, terrifying and ferocious, and Bruce is glad he's not the one trying to face her down.

As the nurse starts to take them back to see Tony, Bruce glances over his shoulder at the other Avengers. Natasha is smirking a little; Thor is leaning over to say something to Clint, who laughs. Steve waves at him, smiling in a supportive way, which, Bruce doesn't know what that means, exactly, but hey, it's something.

**

Bruce knows that Tony will look bad, but somehow it's still a shock to see him, pale and fragile against the pillows, an oxygen tube in his nose, IVs taped to his skin, a bruise huge and dark on his collarbone. He stirs when they come in, opening his eyes slowly, and he smiles when he sees them, somehow a young, unguarded smile. Bruce thinks he's probably pretty doped up. "Hey," he says. "You're here."

"Of course," Pepper says, moving to take his hand, sitting in the chair next to the bed. "How're you feeling?"

Tony grimaces. "Like I have a lot more sympathy for every bug I ever stepped on," he says.

Sasha, who had pressed herself up against Bruce's side when she saw Tony, laughs a little, her body relaxing slightly at Tony sounding like himself. She goes to sit in the other chair, and Tony smiles like he's so pleased to see her. "You're here," he says again. Yeah, pretty doped up. He looks at Bruce and Pepper too, that pleased smile not wavering. "I thought the nurse said family only."

Sasha smirks. "Pepper yelled at her until she let us come back," she says.

When Bruce looks at her, Pepper has gone faintly pink. "I didn't yell," she says primly. "I just convinced her it was in her best interests to let us all go in."

Tony looks like this is the best thing he's heard all day. "You threatened someone?" he says, clearly delighted. "That's amazing."

"She said you'd pull all your donations if they didn't let us back here," Bruce says, and Tony grins even more.

"It wasn't a threat," Pepper says. "It was just a statement of fact." She brushes some of Tony's hair back from his forehead, looking at a place where he has some stitches. He really looks beat up.

"That's fantastic," Tony says. He's still grinning, but looking more and more sleepy, eyelids drifting low. "You never let me throw my money around."

"Well, I was a little upset," Pepper says, but Tony's suddenly asleep, right in the middle of the conversation.

Sasha looks startled. Bruce puts his hand on her shoulder. "It's okay," he says. "He's just hurt. His body wants him asleep so it can heal."

"Oh," Sasha says.

"Plus, it's late," Pepper says. Bruce glances at his watch, and it is, 11:30 and pitch black outside the window, streetlights haloing against the night sky. 

"It is," he says, surprised. "You need to get to bed."

Sasha makes a face at them, but now that Bruce is noticing, she does look tired, almost as pale and sleepy as Tony. "Are we just going to leave him here by himself?"

"No," Bruce says. He doesn't entirely trust that nurse, and he'd feel better being here to keep an eye on Tony's vital signs. "I'll stay."

**

A little noise wakes Bruce up, rustling him out of sleep, and it takes him a second to realize where he is. He's asleep in Tony's hospital room, sitting in an uncomfortable plastic chair and leaning forward so his head can rest on the bed. His neck hurts. He shifts, looking for Tony to make sure he's doing okay, and Tony's eyes are open, looking down at him.

"Hey," Bruce says softly. "You okay?"

Tony moves his hand a little, so Bruce can see the control for his morphine pump in it, the button he can push to get more. "I don't think there's enough morphine in this," Tony says, joking, but his voice is raspy and pale sounding.

"Mmm," Bruce says, sitting up and trying to stretch the crick in his neck. "Sorry. They said you can't have more. It suppresses your breathing and your blood oxygen saturation is too low as it is." Bruce has been watching that monitor all night, the red light of the sensor taped to Tony's index finger, ready to call the nurse if it drops any farther.

Tony makes a face. "Hospitals suck," he says. He looks Bruce up and down, taking in what must be creases on his face from sleeping against the weave of the blanket, the hard plastic chair he's sitting in. "Are you really sleeping in that chair?"

Bruce shrugs. "I don't mind."

Tony gives him a half smile. "I'm amazed you're here. Aren't you worried you might smash the place up since you're such a dangerous monster?"

Bruce blinks. It hadn't even occurred to him to worry about that -- all he was thinking about was Tony being hurt, how badly he needed to see him. But -- that's so unlike him. He hasn't just blithely gone into a school or a hospital or even the DMV without worrying he might destroy it since the accident happened. 

So that's… huh.

"I didn't -- " Bruce says in surprise. He blinks again, trying to get his head around this, what it might mean, how strange it is to have let his guard down like that. It feels heady and dangerous and… sort of good. "I -- I guess I just needed to be here."

Tony looks like he understands what a big deal that is, his eyes searching Bruce's face. It's quiet and dim in the room, which makes it feel more intimate, Tony leaning back against the pillows, looking frail and drawn, a lump on his temple where he hit the pavement, stitches on his forearm coming out from under his hospital gown. It's the middle of the night, dark except for the light of the monitors attached to Tony, streetlights filtering through the blinds. They could be the only two people in the world.

Bruce reaches out to put his hand on Tony's, just wanting to touch him, and Tony smiles in a way that's probably supposed to look rakish, but looks kind of shaky and needy instead. Bruce strokes his thumb across Tony's, looking down at the rough weave of the hospital blanket. "I'm glad you're okay," Bruce finally says, even more quietly than before. "If you died, I'd be…" He trails off and finally finishes with, "... unhappy."

It's horribly inadequate, but he wants Tony to know. When he finally glances up at him, Tony's looking at him with all this tenderness. After a second he says, "Love you too, buddy." The words are flip but his tone isn't, and he squeezes Bruce's hand. Behind him, his heart monitor's flashing a steady quiet rhythm. Bruce swallows, and into the pause Tony says, "Sasha looked upset, earlier."

"She was," Bruce says, thinking of her shaking against his chest. "Very upset."

Tony smiles a little, his eyelids starting to sink lower, how it's hard for him to stay awake when he's hurt this badly, all drugged up. "You think she likes me now?" he says. It's guileless, like a little boy, straightforward and full of wanting in a way Tony usually doesn't show.

"Yeah," Bruce says, smiling at him. In the dimness, light is just catching Tony's cheekbone, the ridge of his forehead. "I think she does."

Tony smiles a little more, and then his eyes shut, and he's asleep.

**

Pepper takes the next day off work, coming to the hospital after she takes Sasha to school, so she can send Bruce home to shower and maybe nap. He comes back after lunch, feeling groggy but better for having gotten some sleep and put some real clothes on, clean and more like a human. Tony seems better, managing to complain when he wakes up, a little more alert and restless at being trapped in a hospital bed, more like himself.

Pepper's the one who goes to pick Sasha up from school, since they avoid having Bruce do that now. The plan is for her to take Sasha home, since they figure she won't want to hang out at the hospital all afternoon, but an hour later when Pepper gets back, Sasha's with her.

"Hey," Sasha says, a little shy, going over to sit in the chair next to Tony.

Bruce raises his eyebrows at Pepper behind Sasha's back. Pepper shrugs. "She insisted," she says quietly to him. When Bruce looks over, Sasha's smiling and handing Tony his tablet, the fancy one with the volumetric display that he asked them to bring so he won't be bored out of his mind. Huh.

Tony starts showing Sasha how the tablet works, and after watching them for a second, Bruce goes back to his seat to sit down, picking his book up again. Across from him, Sasha's laughing. "Okay, so, how does the Iron Man suit work?" she says. "Show me."

Tony lights up, looking flattered and pleased that she asked. "Well," he says. "You have to remember that I came up with the basic design in a cave." He starts sketching out a rough overview of his first suit in three dimensions above the tablet.

Bruce wants to tell him not to tire himself out, but he and Sasha are having too good a time. So he goes back to his book instead, Pepper across from him on her laptop, working. Every now and then he checks in on Tony and Sasha, who seem to be enjoying themselves, Sasha interjecting suggestions or questions once in awhile, Tony flipping the design to show her or to try things. He must be feeling better, because he doesn't even look sleepy now.

Bruce gets more and more involved in his book, so he's lost the thread of their conversation a little later when he hears Sasha say, "Can we make it black? Oh, or black and purple!" Which are her favorite colors, based on her nail polish and the patches she has all over her backpack. When Bruce glances up, they've got a new kind of suit designed in 3D above the display, and Tony's coloring it shiny metallic black and purple.

The dimensions of the suit look a little strange, though, not quite right -- actually, not quite right for an adult. They'd be about right for a child, though. Or -- a 12 year old girl.

"What're you doing?" Bruce says, and his suspicions are confirmed when Tony quickly swoops the design away, shoving it back down into the tablet so Bruce can't see.

"Nothing!" Tony says. Sasha giggles, looking guilty and gleeful all at once.

"Was that a suit for Sasha?" Bruce says. He looks at Pepper, who looks as alarmed as he is.

"I don't think so," Tony says. Sasha is trying to look nonchalant and failing miserably.

Bruce glances at Pepper, and he wants to tell them off, but he can't quite bring himself to when they're obviously having such a good time. "Great," he finally says, irony thick in his voice. "That's just what we need, more members of this family putting themselves in mortal peril."

Tony rolls his eyes. "Such a drama queen," he says, but he's smiling a little, gently, like he knows how scared Bruce was yesterday.

The mention of mortal peril seems to have sobered Sasha a little, though. She's playing with a thread that's fraying on the corner of Tony's blanket. "Tony?" she says, tentative. "If, uh -- if you died, I mean. Who would take care of me?"

Bruce thinks maybe there'll be a pause, Tony realizing he doesn't have that officially set, but instead Tony immediately says, "Pepper and Bruce get custody, jointly."

Bruce blinks. "That's official?" he says.

But now it's Tony who looks mildly surprised. "Of course," he says. "I updated my will the day I got custody of Sasha. I have very thorough lawyers."

"Oh," Sasha says, looking relieved. "Good."

Bruce is relieved too, but as he thinks about it…. "Wait," he says. "You mean -- you updated it more recently too, right, to put me in?"

"No," Tony says, like he's not sure where Bruce is getting this. "You've always been in there."

"But," Bruce says, feeling bewildered. When he glances at Pepper, she looks a little surprised too, because when Sasha came home with Tony, they'd barely started this relationship. It was casual, it wasn't even exclusive. "But when you got Sasha," he starts, and then thinks how to phrase it in front of Sasha without using the word 'fuck-buddy.' "Um, I mean, we weren't… serious," he says.

Tony's smiling a little. "Oh, you weren't?" he says, like that's mildly interesting, mildly surprising. And like Tony himself always has been serious.

Bruce sits back in his seat, trying to get his head around that. Feeling something strange and intense, deep in his chest, bewildered as always by Tony's reckless, foolish, head-first dive into everything.

"Yeah, I know you think you lift right out of this," Tony says, gesturing around the room to encompass the four of them, the family. He starts to pull up another design on his tablet, casual like this conversation is one they have every day, like it's no big deal to give custody of his daughter to Bruce, to the Hulk. "But legally, you actually don't." He glances up to grin at Bruce, quick and intimate, just for a second, before he looks back at the schematics. "See, Sasha, the thrusters have to be balanced," he says, and then the two of them are back into it.

Bruce looks at Pepper, helpless, but she's just smiling at him, like Tony's right, like Bruce belongs here, like that's something they can all take for granted. Bruce sits back in his chair, taking deep breaths, trying to get his head around that. Somehow he feels himself starting to believe it.


End file.
